Table of Contents
Notes to the Teacher 4
Facts About the Author 5
Facts About the Times 6
Facts About the Characters 6
Chapter Summaries 7
Answer Key 10
Literary Glossary 12
Chapter Exercises
Words and Meanings, Ch. 1 14
Recalling Details, Ch. 1 15
Synonyms and Antonyms, Ch. 1 16
Words and Meanings, Ch. 2 17
Cause and Effect, Ch. 2 18
Words and Meanings, Ch. 3 19
Sequence of Events, Ch. 3 20
Words and Meanings, Ch. 4 21
Comprehension Check, Ch. 4 22
Inference, Ch. 4 23
Words and Meanings, Ch. 5 24
Recalling Details, Ch. 5 25
Words and Meanings, Ch. 6 26
Sequence of Events, Ch. 6 27
Character Study, Ch. 6 28
Words and Meanings, Ch. 7 29
Cause and Effect, Ch. 7 30
Words and Meanings, Ch. 8 31
Comprehension Check, Ch. 8 32
Words and Meanings, Ch. 9 33
Comprehension Check, Ch. 9 34
Words and Meanings, Ch. 10 35
Sequence of Events, Ch. 10 36
Personalizing Story Events, Ch. 10 37
End-of-Book Exercises
Book Sequence 38
Final Exam, Part 1 39
Final Exam, Part 2 40
Universal Exercises
Beyond the Text 41
Plot Study 42
Theme Analysis 43
Character Study 44
Vocabulary Study 45
Glossary Study 46
Book Review, Part 1 47
Book Review, Part 2 48
Reading Group Guide
Shocking his stodgy colleagues at the exclusive Reform Club, enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, undertaking an extraordinary and daring enterprise: to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. With his French valet Passepartout in tow, Verne's hero traverses the far reaches of the earth, all the while tracked by the intrepid Detective Fix, a bounty hunter certain he is on the trail of a notorious bank robber. Set from the text of George M. Towle's original 1873 translation, this Modern Library Paperback Classic of Verne's adventure novel comes vividly alive, brilliantly reflecting on time, space, and one man's struggle to reach beyond the bounds of both science and society.
1. Having been born into a family that had made their living from the sea, Jules Verne spent his early years in a seaport town. When he was still young, Verne himself became a cabin boy on a merchant ship. In what ways do you think these elements of the author's own life may have influenced Around the World in Eighty Days?
2. Verne became very involved with theater while studying law in Paris and is the author of many plays. What elements in this novel do you think came out of Verne's theatrical experiences? After Eighty Days was published, Verne received many requests to dramatize the work. Do you think the book has particularly theatrical elements that would lead to its adaptation as a play?
3. Around the World in Eighty Days is considered one of the most popular adventure novels of all time. What do you think of this characterization and how would you compare it to contemporary adventure novels and films? What elements of the adventure genre have changed overtime, and where do you think today's adventure authors owe a debt to Verne?
4. Although the story begins in London, it eventually spans the entire globe. Despite the international setting, this book is distinctly British in many ways. Why might Verne have chosen a protagonist that is so quintessentially British, while the author himself was French?
5. Verne had an avid interest in science, particularly geology and geography, and was somewhat of an inventor. After having read Around the World in Eighty Days, does it surprise you that Verne is considered by many to be the father of science fiction? Where do you think Verne's scientific expertise adds to the story?
6. For Verne, the world is shrinking; exploration has given way to tourism and imperialism. In his Introduction, Bruce Sterling argues that comments on globalization in Eighty Days are particularly relevant today. Would you agree? What evidence can you find to support this, and what lessons do you think we can learn from this novel today?
7. In many ways, Verne's tale is one about the future, and many of his ideas have come to pass. Now that it is relatively easy to go around the world in eighty days, why is this tale still entertaining and relevant?
8. Many of the characters in the novel have names that in some way illuminate their roles. Why do you think Verne chose to call his hero Fogg, the detective Fix, and the assistant Passepartout, which means skeleton key in French?
9. Why do you think the hero, the mysterious Phileas Fogg, accepts the bet to travel the globe in eighty days?
10. When the book was written, the Parsee Indian Aouda represented the unknown and the exotic, but in many ways she is the character that the modern reader finds most familiar. Do you think this is true? In what ways is she now more modern than many of the other characters?
11. The precise and very British Phileas Fogg and his valet, the comic and very French Passepartout, are strikingly different characters. In what ways do their differences help to elucidate their individual character traits? Why does Verne include this relationship? Most of the time Passepartout is more a hindrance to his employer than helpful. Why do you think Fogg keeps him? In what ways does he serve to advance the plot, particularly with Aouda?
12. In many ways, Fogg's travels are more than just a race around the world but a quest, one in which the hero returns somehow transformed. Do you think Fogg's character is changed when he returns to London at the end of the challenge?
13. At the conclusion of the novel, the narrator asserts that Phileas Fogg in his journey has gained nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Verne seems to be making the point that love and human relationships are more important than winning bets or other material gains. Do you think that the rest of the novel would support this assertion? If not, why might Verne have included it?
Read an Excerpt
1
In which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout accept 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 Byronic; 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 ships ever came into London docks of which he was the owner; he had no public employment; he had never been entered at any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple, or Lincoln’s Inn, or Gray’s Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded in the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen’s Bench, or the Ecclesiastical Courts. He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal Institution or the London Institution, the Artisan’s Association or the Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing perniciousinsects.
Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.
The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club was simple enough.
He was recommended by the Barings, with whom he had an open credit. His checks were regularly paid at sight from his account current, which was always flush.
Was Phileas Fogg rich? Undoubtedly. But those who knew him best could not imagine how he had made his fortune, and Mr. Fogg was the last person to whom to apply for the information. He was not lavish, nor, on the contrary, avaricious; for whenever he knew that money was needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied it quickly, and sometimes anonymously. He was, in short, the least communicative of men. He talked very little, and seemed all the more mysterious for his taciturn manner. His daily habits were quite open to observation; but whatever he did was so exactly the same thing that he had always done before, that the wits of the curious were fairly puzzled.
Had he travelled? It was likely, for no one seemed to know the world more familiarly; there was no spot so secluded that he did not appear to have an intimate acquaintance with it. He often corrected, with a few clear words, the thousand conjectures advanced by members of the club as to lost and unheard-of travellers, pointing out the true probabilities, and seeming as if gifted with a sort of second sight, so often did events justify his predictions. He must have travelled everywhere, at least in the spirit.
It was at least certain that Phileas Fogg had not absented himself from London for many years. Those who were honoured by a better acquaintance with him than the rest, declared that nobody could pretend to have ever seen him anywhere else. His sole pastimes were reading the papers and playing whist. He often won at this game, which, as a silent one, harmonized with his nature; but his winnings never went into his purse, being reserved as a fund for his charities. Mr. Fogg played, not to win, but for the sake of playing. The game was in his eyes a contest, a struggle with a difficulty, yet a motionless, unwearying struggle, congenial to his tastes.
Phileas Fogg was not known to have either wife or children, which may happen to the most honest people; either relatives or near friends, which is certainly more unusual. He lived alone in his house in Saville Row, whither none penetrated. A single domestic sufficed to serve him. He breakfasted and dined at the club, at hours mathematically fixed, in the same room, at the same table, never taking his meals with other members, much less bringing a guest with him; and went home at exactly midnight, only to retire at once to bed. He never used the cosy chambers which the Reform provides for its favoured members. He passed ten hours out of the twenty-four in Saville Row, either in sleeping or making his toilet. When he chose to take a walk, it was with a regular step in the entrance hall with its mosaic flooring, or in the circular gallery with its dome supported by twenty red porphyry Ionic columns, and illumined by blue painted windows. When he breakfasted or dined, all the resources of the club—its kitchens and pantries, its buttery and dairy—aided to crowd his table with their most succulent stores; he was served by the gravest waiters, in dress coats, and shoes with swan-skin soles, who proffered the viands in special porcelain, and on the finest linen; club decanters, of a lost mould, contained his sherry, his port, and his cinnamon-spiced claret; while his beverages were refreshingly cooled with ice, brought at great cost from the American lakes.
If to live in this style is to be eccentric, it must be confessed that there is something good in eccentricity!
The mansion in Saville Row, though not sumptuous, was exceedingly comfortable. The habits of its occupant were such as to demand but little from the sole domestic; but Phileas Fogg required him to be almost superhumanly prompt and regular. On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Phileas Fogg was seated squarely in his arm-chair, his feet close together like those of a grenadier on parade, his hands resting on his knees, his body straight, his head erect; he was steadily watching a complicated clock which indicated the hours, the minutes, the seconds, the days, the months, and the years. At exactly half-past eleven Mr. Fogg would, according to his daily habit, quit Saville Row, and repair to the Reform.
A rap at this moment sounded on the door of the cosy apartment where Phileas Fogg was seated, and James Forster, the dismissed servant, appeared.
“The new servant,” said he.
A young man of thirty advanced and bowed.
“You are a Frenchman, I believe,” asked Phileas Fogg, “and your name is John?”
“Jean, if monsieur pleases,” replied the new-comer, “Jean Passepartout, a surname which has clung to me because I have a natural aptness for going out of one business into another. I believe I’m honest, monsieur, but, to be outspoken, I’ve had several trades. I’ve been an itinerant singer, a circus-rider, when I used to vault like Leotard, and dance on a rope like Blondin. Then I got to be a professor of gymnastics, so as to make better use of my talents; and then I was a sergeant fireman at Paris, and assisted at many a big fire. But I quitted France five years ago, and, wishing to taste the sweets of domestic life, took service as a valet here in England. Finding myself out of place, and hearing that Monsieur Phileas Fogg was the most exact and settled gentleman in the United Kingdom, I have come to monsieur in hope of living with him a tranquil life, and forgetting even the name of Passepartout.”
“Passepartout suits me,” responded Mr. Fogg. “You are well recommended to me; I hear a good report of you. You know my conditions?”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Good. What time is it?”
“Twenty-two minutes after eleven,” returned Passepartout, drawing an enormous silver watch from the depths of his pocket.
“You are too slow,” said Mr. Fogg.
“Pardon me, monsieur, it is impossible—”
“You are four minutes too slow. No matter; it’s enough to mention the error. Now from this moment, twenty-nine minutes after eleven, a.m., this Wednesday, October 2nd, you are in my service.”
“Phileas Fogg got up, took his hat in his left hand, put it on his head with an automatic motion, and went off without a word.
Passepartout heard the street door shut once; it was his new master going out. He heard it shut again; it was his predecessor, James Forster, departing in his turn. Passepartout remained alone in the house in Saville Row.
copyright © 1988 by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
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