Around the World in Eighty Days () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Jean Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager of £20,000 (equivalent to £ million in ) set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.
Plot Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman with mathematically precise habits. He lives a solitary and modest life in London, where he is a member of the Reform Club. On 2 October 1872, after dismissing his valet for serving shaving water at the wrong temperature, Fogg hires Frenchman Jean Passepartout as a replacement. That night at the Club, Fogg gets into an argument over a newspaper article stating that, with a new railway section in India, it is now possible to circumnavigate the world in 80 days. Fogg wagers £20,000, half of his fortune, that he can achieve the feat, departing London that night and returning to the Club by 8:45 p.m. on 21 December. Accompanied by Passepartout and carrying the remaining £20,000 to cover expenses, he sets off by train.
+ The itinerary (as originally planned) London to Suez, Egypt Rail to Brindisi, Italy, via Turin and steamer (the Mongolia) across the Mediterranean Sea 7 days Suez to Bombay, India with a stopover in Aden Steamer (the Mongolia) across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean 13 days Bombay to Calcutta, India Rail 3 days Calcutta to Victoria, Hong Kong with a stopover in Singapore Steamer (the Rangoon) across the South China Sea 13 days Hong Kong to Yokohama, Japan Steamer (the Carnatic) across the South China Sea, East China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean 6 days Yokohama to San Francisco, USA Steamer (the General Grant) across the Pacific Ocean 22 days San Francisco to New York City, USA Rail 7 days New York to London, England (UK) Steamer (the China) across the Atlantic Ocean to Liverpool and rail 9 daysTotal Map of the trip.
Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez on time, where Scotland Yard Detective Fix, hunting a bank robber who vaguely matches Fogg's appearance as described, begins watching him. Fix joins them aboard the steamer Mongolia to Bombay, befriending Passepartout without revealing his purpose. Fogg bribes the crew to arrive in Bombay two days early. However, the railway line to Calcutta is incomplete. Fogg purchases an elephant, hires a guide and starts toward Allahabad. The travellers witness a sati ritual in which a young Indian widow, Aouda, is to be burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre while drugged, and they decide to rescue her. Passepartout disguises himself as the dead husband and rises from the pyre to scare off the priests and carry Aouda away. The two days gained earlier are lost, but Fogg shows no regret. The group boards a train at Allahabad with Aouda and continues to Calcutta. Fix, having arrived ahead in Calcutta, has Fogg and Passepartout arrested for a crime Passepartout committed in Bombay. They jump bail and board the steamer Rangoon to Hong Kong, with Fix boarding as well.
In Hong Kong, learning Aouda's relative has moved to Holland, they decide to take her along to Europe. Fix, desperate to arrest Fogg on British soil, confides in Passepartout, who dismisses him as a spy for the Reform Club. To sabotage the group's departure on the Carnatic, Fix drugs Passepartout in an opium den. Passepartout still manages to board, but cannot inform Fogg that the steamer is leaving the evening before its scheduled departure date. Fogg, having missed the Carnatic, boards the pilot boat Tankadere with Aouda and Fix to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama. There, they reunite with Passepartout, who has been working in a circus to earn the fare for his homeward journey. The group sails across the Pacific on the General Grant to San Francisco. Fix, now beyond British jurisdiction, promises Passepartout he will support Fogg's return to Britain, where he can arrest him.
America's transcontinental train faces a crossing herd of bison, a failing suspension bridge, and a Sioux ambush. Passepartout is kidnapped, but Fogg rescues him with help from American soldiers. They continue via wind-powered sled to Omaha and catch a train to New York City, but miss their intended steamer. On board the Henrietta destined for Bordeaux, Fogg stages a mutiny to redirect to Liverpool. When the boat's coal runs out during a hurricane, Fogg buys the boat and has the crew burn the wooden parts for fuel. They reach Queenstown, Ireland, then travel by train and ferry to Liverpool.
On English soil, Fix arrests Fogg, but the actual robber's capture three days earlier is revealed. Though Fogg's name is cleared, he misses his London train as a result of the delay. He orders a special train and arrives apparently five minutes late, certain he has lost the wager. The next day, Fogg apologises to Aouda for his impending poverty, but she nevertheless confesses her love and proposes to him. While arranging the wedding, Passepartout discovers the date is actually 21 December, not 22 December. Travelling eastward, the party gained a day by crossing longitudes, experiencing 80 sunrises while London only saw 79. Fogg rushes to the Club and arrives on time to win the wager. Having spent almost £19,000 during the journey, he divides the remainder between Passepartout and Fix, and marries Aouda.
Background and analysis Around the World in Eighty Days was written during difficult times, both for France and Verne. It was during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) in which Verne was conscripted as a coastguard; he was having financial difficulties (his previous works were not paid royalties); his father had died recently; and he had witnessed a public execution, which disturbed him.William Butcher (translation and introduction). Around the World in Eighty Days, Oxford Worlds Classics, 1995, Introduction.
The technological innovations of the 19th century had opened the possibility of rapid circumnavigation, and the prospect fascinated Verne and his readership. In particular, three technological breakthroughs occurred in 1869–1870 that made a tourist-like around-the-world journey possible for the first time: the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in America (1869), the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), and the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870). It was another notable mark at the end of an age of exploration and the start of an age of fully global tourism that could be enjoyed in relative comfort and safety. It sparked the imagination that anyone could sit down, draw up a schedule, buy tickets and travel around the world, a feat previously reserved for only the most heroic and hardy of adventurers.
The story began serialization in Le Temps on 6 November 1872. The story was published in instalments over the next 45 days, with its ending timed to synchronize Fogg's 21 December deadline with the real world. Chapter XXXV appeared on 20 December; 21 December, the date upon which Fogg was due to appear back in London, did not include an installment of the story; on 22 December, the final two chapters announced Fogg's success. As it was being published serially for the first time, some readers believed that the journey was actually taking place – bets were placed, and some railway companies and ship liner companies lobbied Verne to appear in the book. It is unknown if Verne submitted to their requests, but the descriptions of some rail and shipping lines leave some suspicion that he was influenced.
Concerning the final coup de théâtre, Fogg had thought it was one day later than it actually was because he had forgotten that during his journey, he had added a full day to his clock, at the rate of an hour per 15° of longitude crossed. A recurring criticism of the book is that Fogg should have known and planned for this phenomenon due to his "exact" nature, despite him being shown to make similar errors elsewhere. At the time of publication and until 1884, a de jure International Date Line did not exist. If it did, he would likely have been made aware of the change in date once he reached this line. Thus, the day he added to his clock throughout his journey would be removed upon crossing it. However, Fogg's mistake would not have been likely to occur in the real world because a de facto date line did exist. The UK, India, and the US had the same calendar despite different local times. When he arrived in San Francisco, he would have noticed that the local date was one day earlier than shown in his travel diary. Consequently, it is unlikely he would fail to notice that the departure dates of the transcontinental train in San Francisco and of the China steamer in New York were one day earlier than his travel diary. He would also somehow have to avoid looking at any newspapers. Additionally, in Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?, John Sutherland points out that Fogg and company would have to be "deaf, dumb and blind" not to notice how busy the streets were on an apparent "Sunday", with the Sunday Observance Act 1780 still in effect.
Real-life imitations Following publication in 1873, various people attempted to follow Fogg's fictional circumnavigation, often within self-imposed constraints: In 1889, Nellie Bly undertook to travel around the world in 80 days for her newspaper, the New York World. She managed to do the journey within 72 days, meeting Verne in Amiens. Her book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days became a bestseller. In 1889, Elizabeth Bisland, working for the Cosmopolitan became a rival to Bly, racing her across the world to try to achieve the global crossing first.Roggenkamp, Karen S.H. Dignified Sensationalism: Elizabeth Bisland, Cosmopolitan, and Trips Around the World , presented at "Writing the Journey: A Conference on American, British, & Anglophone Writers and Writing" University of Pennsylvania, 10–13 June 1999 She completed the trip in 76 days, well ahead of Fogg's fictional record but slower than Bly's.Miss Bisland Arrives: Her Trip Around the World in 76 days, The New York Times, January 31, 1890 In 1894, George Griffith carried out a publicity stunt on behalf of C. Arthur Pearson by circumnavigating the world in 65 days, from 12 March to 16 May. The tale of his journey was told in Pearson's Weekly in 14 parts between 2 June and 1 September 1894, bearing the title "How I Broke the Record Round the World". It was later published in book form in 2008 under the title Around the World in 65 Days. In 1903, James Willis Sayre, an American theatre critic and arts promoter, set a world record for circling the earth using public transport: 54 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes. In 1908, Harry Bensley, on a wager, set out to circumnavigate the world on foot wearing an iron mask. The journey was abandoned, incomplete, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. In 1924, three British airmen attempted to fly around the world with various stops along the way. They faced many and varied perils along the way, but finally gave up at the Bering Sea."The forgotten story of Britain's perilous bid to fly around the world" The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/forgotten-Britain-bid-fly-around-world/ accessed 25 June 2025 In 1924, an American team of four planes succeeded in flying around the world, but it took much more than 80 days, and they arrived in Seattle on 28 September."The forgotten story of Britain's perilous bid to fly around the world" The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/forgotten-Britain-bid-fly-around-world/ accessed 25 June 2025