Around the World in 80 Days. Jules Verne

Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf Editions. Around the World in 80 Days. Jules Verne. Open Contents Jules Verne. Around the World in 80 Days. than studying the law, he promptly withdrew his financial support. About the author Consequently, he was forced to support himself as a stockbroker, which he hated, although he was a success at it. During this period, he met the authors Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, who offered Jules Verne (February 8, 1828 - him some advice on his writing. March 24, 1905) was a French writer It was during this period he met Honorine de Viane Morel, a and a pioneer of the science fiction widow with two daughters. They married on January 10, 1857. With (scientific romance) genre. her encouragement, he continued to write and actively try to find a Verne was born in Nantes to at- publisher. On August 4, 1861, their son, Michel Jean Pierre Verne, torney Pierre Verne and his wife was born. A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne’s Sophie. The oldest of the family's five objections, and had two children by his underage mistress. children, he spent his early years at Verne’s situation improved when he met Pierre-Jules Hetzel, one home with his parents, on a nearby of the most important French publishers of the 19th century, who island in the Loire River. published also Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Erckmann-Chatrian, This isolated setting helped to strengthen both his imagination among others. Hetzel read a draft of Verne’s story about the balloon and the bond between him and his younger brother Paul. At the age of exploration of Africa, which had been rejected by other publishers nine, the pair were sent to boarding school at the Nantes lycée. on the ground that it was “too scientific”. With Hetzel’s help, Verne There Jules studied Latin, which was used later in his short story rewrote the story and in 1863 it was published in book form as Cinq Le Mariage de Monsieur Anselme des Tilleuls (mid-1850, not yet semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon). translated into English). The following legend was created by his sec- Verne became wealthy and famous. From that point on, and for ond French biographer, Marguerite Allotte de la Fuye: Verne's fasci- nearly a quarter of a century, scarcely a year passed in which Hetzel nation with adventure asserted itself at an early age, inspiring him at did not publish one or more of his stories. The most successful of one point to stow away on a ship bound for Asia. His voyage was cut these include: Voyage au centre de la terre (Journey to the Center of the short, however, as he found his father waiting for him at the next port. Earth, 1864); De la terre à la lune (From the Earth to the Moon, After completing his studies at the lycée, Verne went to Paris to 1865); Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (20,000 Leagues Under the study for the bar. About 1848, in conjunction with Michel Carre, he Seas, 1869); and Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours (Around the began writing librettos for operettas. For some years his attentions World in Eighty Days), which first appeared in Le Temps in 1872. were divided between the theatre and work, but some travellers’ After his first novel, most of his stories were first serialized in the stories which he wrote for the Musée des Familles seem to have Magasin d’Education et de Recreation, a Hetzel biweekly publication, revealed to him the true direction of his talent: the telling of before being published in the form of books. His brother, Paul Verne, delightfully extravagant voyages and adventures to which cleverly contributed to the 40th French climbing of the Mont-Blanc, added to prepared scientific and geographical details lent an air of his brother’s collection of short stories Doctor Ox in 1874. He remains verisimilitude. the most translated novelist in the world, in 148 languages, according When Verne’s father discovered that his son was writing rather to the UNESCO statistics. Contents Jules Verne. Around the World in 80 Days. On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his nephew, Gaston, charged at him with a gun. As the two wrestled for it, it went Contents off. The second bullet entered Verne’s left shin. He never fully recovered. Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum. After the deaths of Hetzel and his beloved mother in 1887, Chapter 28. Jules began writing works that were darker. In 1888, he entered Chapter 1. politics and was elected town councillor of Amiens where he Chapter 2. Chapter 29. championed several improvements and served for 15 years. Ill with Chapter 3. Chapter 30. diabetes, Verne died at his home, 44 Boulevard Longueville, (now Chapter 4. Chapter 31. Boulevard Jules-Verne). Michel oversaw publication of his last Chapter 5. Chapter 32. novels Invasion of the Sea and The Lighthouse at the End of the World. Chapter 6. Chapter 33. In 1863, he wrote a novel called Paris in the 20th Century about Chapter 7. Chapter 34. a young man who lives in a world of glass skyscrapers, high-speed Chapter 8. Chapter 35. trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide Chapter 9. Chapter 36. communications network, yet cannot find happiness, and comes to a Chapter 10. Chapter 37. tragic end. Hetzel thought the novel’s pessimism would damage Chapter 11. Verne’s then booming career, and suggested he wait 20 years to Chapter 12. Click on a number in the chapter list to go publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was Chapter 13. to the first page of that chapter. discovered by his great-grandson in 1989. It was published in 1994. Chapter 14. Note: Chapter 15. The best way to read this ebook is in Full Chapter 16. Screen mode: click View, Full Screen to set Chapter 17. Adobe Acrobat to Full Screen View. This mode Chapter 18. allows you to use Page Down to go to the next Chapter 19. page, and affords the best reading view. Press Escape to exit the Full Screen View. Chapter 20. Chapter 21. Chapter 22. Chapter 23. Chapter 24. Chapter 25. Chapter 26. Chapter 27. Contents Jules Verne. Around the World in 80 Days. 1 Around the Chapter 1. In which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout accept World in 80 Days. each other, the one as master, the other as man. Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron—at least that his head was By- ronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old. Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. He was never seen on ‘Change, nor at the Bank, nor in the counting-rooms of the “City”; no Contents Jules Verne. Around the World in 80 Days. 2 3 ships ever came into London docks of which he was the owner; avaricious; for, whenever he knew that money was needed for he had no public employment; he had never been entered at a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied it quietly any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple, or Lincoln’s and sometimes anonymously. He was, in short, the least com- Inn, or Gray’s Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded in the municative of men. He talked very little, and seemed all the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen’s Bench, more mysterious for his taciturn manner. His daily habits or the Ecclesiastical Courts. He certainly was not a manufac- were quite open to observation; but whatever he did was so turer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His exactly the same thing that he had always done before, that name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and the wits of the curious were fairly puzzled. he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of Had he travelled? It was likely, for no one seemed to know the Royal Institution or the London Institution, the Artisan’s the world more familiarly; there was no spot so secluded that Association, or the Institution of Arts and Sciences. He be- he did not appear to have an intimate acquaintance with it. longed, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm He often corrected, with a few clear words, the thousand con- in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the En- jectures advanced by members of the club as to lost and un- tomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing heard-of travellers, pointing out the true probabilities, and pernicious insects. seeming as if gifted with a sort of second sight, so often did Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was events justify his predictions. He must have travelled every- all. where, at least in the spirit. The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club It was at least certain that Phileas Fogg had not absented was simple enough. himself from London for many years. Those who were He was recommended by the Barings, with whom he had honoured by a better acquaintance with him than the rest, an open credit.

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