I could have sworn I read this book as a child, but as I continued reading nothing came back to my memory, of course I knew the basic plot, but as it is a very well known work I could have picked that up at any time however the more I read the less I recognised and I loved the full story. So how come I have clearly never read this before?

The base story, as I think everybody knows, is that Phileas Fogg, a man who notoriously goes nowhere other than to his home or club and whom is so punctual and set in his habits that you could set a watch by his movements raises the subject of the possibility of travelling around the world in just eighty days. When other members of the Reform Club are incredulous he agrees to wager the massive sum of £20,000 (£1.8 million in today’s money) that he can make such a journey and whats more without any prior planning for he will leave from the card game they are playing immediately. I also knew that he arrives back in London having been delayed and believes he has taken eighty one days and is financially ruined but is rescued by having crossed the international date line in an easterly direction and therefore has gained a day’s grace so makes it back to the club just in time. That is all I knew when I started the book, I had assumed that some travel disaster had occurred to delay him and was surprised by the true reason and knew nothing of the policeman, Fix, who had dogged his trail around the world in the mistaken belief that Fogg was the man who stole £55,000 from the Bank of England a few days before he set out on his journey.

I also knew nothing of Aouda who accompanies Fogg from India as I believed that his sole companion was his newly employed valet, the Frenchman Passepartout, whose name is the French for a master key which will enable you to go through any door in an establishment. Jules Verne must have spent a considerable amount of time pre-planning the trip as it is exquisitely timetabled, just how long each trip would take and how much time the travellers would have to make the next connection and how long they would have to wait if they missed such a rendezvous is all set out and is completely believable. Having sat down with railway and ship timetables to work out long over land and sea journeys in the past for my own holidays I am very aware just how complicated this could be before the age of the internet.

I loved the story, the development of the characters and the ingenious ways that Verne managed to keep them hearing ever onwards. Yes it is possible now to get round the world in less than a handful of days by simply getting on a plane, a mode of transport unavailable to Fogg back in 1873 when the novel was written and back in 1988 Michael Palin proved it was still possible to get round the world in eighty days without the use of aircraft, taking roughly the same amount of time as Fogg did in the novel. I heartily recommend this wonderful tale and I’m simply amazed that this was the first time I read it.

About the only thing I didn’t like about this Folio Society edition is the fold out map tucked into a pocket in the rear cover. It is unfortunately extremely difficult to read, which is a shame as clearly a lot of work had gone into it and it could also have been considerably improved by including a line indicating the path that Fogg and his companions took, definitely a missed opportunity there. The images in this blog were taken from the Folio Society website which I downloaded before the edition sold out and the book was removed from the site. As can be seen it is copiously illustrated with headings and tailpieces to each of the thirty seven chapters by Kristjana S Williams who also drew the map and the front cover.