Talk:Around the World in Eighty Days

Hot air balloon

Does anyone know why hot air balloons are so strongly associated with this book, when they're not actually used in it? Nearly every printing of the book has a hot air balloon on the cover, and all the movie and TV versions seem to make lots of use of hot air balloons. Was there a popular early film adaptation that had a big hot air balloon sequence? Or is it just people think of it because they think it was an exotic form of transportation in the mid 1800s? --4.246.9.106 03:05, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

I can only imagine it is due to some confusion between Jules Verne's '...80 Days' novel and 'Five Weeks in a Balloon' novel. I think '5 weeks...' was written first, but I don't know when either became well know or more popular. Maybe it was in a joint edition of both books together or something, where the cover picture was from '5 weeks...' and people who didn't know the stories thought the balloon was for '...80 days' and so when creating covers for future editions based them on this older edition. Evil Eye 09:12, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Certainly a balloon was used in one of the most memorable sequences in the 1956 film adaptation. In this case, one has to admit that the departure from the original novel was well done and entirely appropriate.

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If there's no objection, I'm integrating the stublet Around the World in 80 Days (novel) into this article, which will cover both the novel and the film. --Brion VIBBER 16:19 Aug 10, 2002 (PDT)

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Why 80 days? Cutler 00:43, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Because Verne was inspired by reading a newspaper article that showed how, with the wonders of modern passenger travel, it was now possible to travel around the world in eighty days using only regularly-scheduled ships and trains. The key event, if I recall correctly, was the opening of the trans-India railway, which knocked a month or two off the travel time. --Paul A 06:57, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I don't think the Trans-indian railway took so much off the time. The sea distance around India seem to be 1900 nm, and would take eight days in a 10 knot steam ship. A much larger saving, several months, was made possible thanks to the Trans-USA railway and the Suez canal.-- BIL 23:10, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

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References to movies seems to omit a major one; 1989 Move remake.

The False Balloon is not a "hot air balloon"!!

I see this in virtually every article I've seen here, where an old fashioned ascension balloon is described as a "hot air balloon". The sort of balloon that Jules Verne wrote about in other stories like The Mysterious Island and Five Weeks In A Balloon were lifted by hydrogen, helium, or some other lighter-than-air gas. There was no hot air involved. In fact, one article described the balloon as a "hydrogen hot air balloon", certainly a most lethal contraption.

I've tried correcting this error two or three times, but somebody keeps changing it back to "hot air".

Why Passepartout

Jules Verne’s mother had a Scottish ancestor from 1462 and the family lived in, and he grew up in, Nantes in Brittany. Brittany has this name as it is the area of France where Celtic Romanised Britons fled to escape the Anglo Saxons who invaded Britain after Rome withdrew from there. Verne visited Scotland, England and America, and a number of his stories have English speaking characters and settings. Whether he spoke English I haven’t been able to find out, but as in ’80 days’ his works can have a decidedly English setting and seeming understanding. Phileas Fogg, the Reform club and the life of a ‘Gentleman’ in London of the day, and a lot of the travel is through parts of the British Empire and English speaking USA.

There had long existed the practise of countries providing letters or documents requesting safe travel for the holder in other countries. In 1858 the UK introduced a form of this that we would know as a Passport today, about 15 years before ’80 days’.

Could it be that the name of Fogg’s butler ‘Passepartout’ is a pun? A phonetic pronunciation of this name is ‘pass-port-too’. To travel around the world in eighty days you needed a Passport too? A literal translation of the name from French is ‘passes everywhere’, so even in French it could still be a pun, Fogg needed someone to help him ‘pass everywhere’. (This was put up by B C James who didn't read the instructions properly and so my details didn't appear, when I work out how to do it I'll add it.)

I consider this explanation idle speculation. Passepartout, at least the way we use it in German as a word borrowed from French, means "fits everything" and is used for the neutral background in a picture frame. Passepartout as a name could thus just mean that Passepartout can cope with any situation he is confronted with - he will never feel out of place.

Unless there is proof that his name is a pun on "Passport" (maybe by a contemporary review of his book), I wouldn't add this.

I don't think it's a pun, as the word doesn't stem from "Passport". I believe "Passe-partout" (fits everywhere, goes everywhere) is French for "master key" or "skeleton key", one that opens all doors. I suppose in the novel, it was a reference to the jolly fellow's rich experience in trades and professions of all kinds. --Krickles 23:12, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Mormons

I removed this passage as it's only one anecdote among many on the trip and very much out of context. If someone wants to find a better place for it please feel free to.

During the train ride across America, Passepartout and other passengers meet some Mormon missionaries. Though the other passengers leave, Passepartout listens to their entire explanation of the Mormon religion, but when he is asked to join the religion he refuses.

~ trialsanderrors 07:54, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Jackie Chan's parody [2004]

The previous version had obvious factual errors realted to not understanding this film is a parody of the other films by the same title; and so I've fixed them. Joncnunn 19:33, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Lost day

It is impossible for Phineas Fogg, who fired his valet for bringing sgaving water 2 degrees cool, to have made the error of one day in his journey. After the third day out, his watch would be wrong by one hour and getting prpgressively worse. It would have taken him about three seconds to guess why, when he got up at 7 o'clock by his watch, it was still pitch black. To my knowledge, no one has ever mentioned this fatal flaw in the story. (Ralph Spitzer, July 11, 2006.) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.86.202.82 (talk • contribs) .

The international date line was not established until after the book was written. So the idea of "loosing a day" was novel for the typical reader (and thus Fogg also). He could have continued to reset his watch without thinking about it. Verne himself only got the idea from a science magazine, and from a plot device used in a Edgar Poe story. -- Stbalbach 00:34, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Ralph has stated the issue backwards, although his basic point is sound. Fogg was going west to east against the apparent motion of the Sun, hence solar days in his frame of reference would be shorter than 24 hours. His watch (staying on London time) would, after a few days, read slow relative to the local solar time, not fast. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.63.116.72 (talk) 12:59, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

There is a series of books, one if which is 'can Jane Eyre be Happy', which consist of short essays that discusses technical points in classics. They point out that the travelers return on Saturday, believing it to be Sunday. However, apparently there was no way you could possible mix up those two days of the week. On Saturday everyone would have been out and about buying and selling things (i.e. it was a weekday) and that on Sunday everyone was quietly going to church (i.e. it was the weekend). However, apparently in France they DIDN'T have sunday trading laws and in France it WOULD be possible to mix those two days up. I read the essay ages ago and can't remember any references, but if anyone knows more... ChristineD 23:00, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

The International Date Line existed in reality because it has to exist. The date in California afternoon was not the same as Japan morning, since Japanese clocks show (then approximately) 17 hours more. The line did not exist in formality, but had to exist in reality. Mr Fogg should have noticed when he arrived to the United States that his day was not the same as the day in US. But maybe there were trains every day, so he didn't notice. He should have noticed in New York when he wanted to board the ship, which he had a ticket for, going on a specific day, but unfortunately he missed the ship. Actually he should have been able to catch the ship, since his clock showed GMT+19 (adjusted gradually during the trip), but a correct clock showed GMT-5 in New York, causing the ship to leave one day later than he thought. Anyway it is a novel not reality and if he noticed it in the US, it would have destoyed the effect. -- BIL 13:48, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Precisely. If he had kept track of it, there would have been no suspense. Plus, this could have been a device by the author to instill some humility. As I recall, the protagonist was rather full of himself. Wahkeenah 00:23, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

According to this very same Wikipedia, the International Date Line did not exist before the book was published. Besides, it is an imaginary line, it does not "have to" exist. The whole point of the lost day depends precisely on the IDL not existing. If it had, Fogg would have substracted a day on his watch after he had crossed it from west to east (that's how it works), therefore he would not have held the day of his comeback for sunday, but for saturday (which was the correct date). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.158.45.98 (talk) 22:20, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

The essay ChristineD is referring to is Jules Verne and the English Sunday by John Sutherland, originally published in the volume Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennett? and republished in the collected set entitled The Literary Detective. Sutherland remarks : "This is an implausibility which would, I think, tend to slip by the French reader ... But for those older readers who can remember the full awfulness of the Victorian Sunday, a phenomenon which lasted well into the last decades of the twentieth century, the ending of Verne's romance will always ring false" --Stephen Burnett 16:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there's a mention in the novel of Phileas Fogg having a watch. In Chapter 1 he consults a clock, which of course he did not take with him. Passepartout has his watch throughout the novel, but he famously refuses to believe in the time difference so he would not notice anything. 91.107.185.222 (talk) 16:24, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

The International Date Line is irrelevant, and the article is incorrect in naming it as the reason Fogg got back a day earlier than he realized. The simple explanation is that, due to his traveling east, the sun set a little earlier every day, from Fogg's perspective, than it would from that of a stationary person. Over the course of his journey, therefore, he witnessed 80 sunsets, and thought 80 days had passed; when in fact only 79 days had passed. If you do a little figuring, you'll realize that he would see one, and only one, extra sunset whether he went around in 80 days, 50 days, 20 days, or 1 day.

video game

there was an around the world in 80 days game. it was an educational game played on old apple computers. i played it at primary school back in the early 90s, maybe a reference to that could be included?

Elevation of the Great Salt Lake

In all the English editions of the book to which I have access, Chapter XXVII Paragraph 17 is translated from the original French as:

The Salt Lake, seventy miles long and thirty-five wide, is situated three miles eight hundred feet above the sea.

This is an elevation to rival the Himalayas! Surely the text should read three thousand eight hundred feet above the sea.

My native French colleague tells me that the French for mile and thousand are similiar. The modern elevation given for the Great Salt Lake is some 4200 feet. It is my suggesion that Verne was mistranslated at an early date and that this mistake has propagated. Am I correct? Should this be put right? Can this be put right? - Hawden 10th February 2008

As a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah, I can confirm that the great salt lake is at approximately 4200 feet, so yes, that is correct. -- Javawizard (talk) 03:25, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Currency Conversion Issue

I calulated what £20,000 would be worth in 2007 using an online inflation calculator and got a figure of £1.2 million Harry Hayfield (talk) 21:56, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

More issues are here, in that there are various ways to convert to arrive at 'Today's' value, a citation or two is valuable to make this more transparent. Of course, also is the issue of "when is today?" as a matter of Wikipedia policy, best to be precise with dates. Also, there is the further matter of Significant Figures. I would hazard a guess, that due to the vagaries of converting historical sums into present day sums, it extremely unlikely that the sum of 20 or 40 thousand pounds could be given an approximation with any more than 2 significant figures. Thus, you might well say that £20000 would be about £1.2 million in 2007 terms (I suspect though that £1million might be better), but it is extremely unlikely that you could say, with real confidence, that £40,000 is equal to £2,648,577 in 'today's' money. 60.240.207.146 (talk) 07:12, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

I was just coming here to ask about the same thing. We really should change these numbers. --Khajidha (talk) 00:54, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Dénouement [sic]?

The Verne quote about reading the story about going around the world and realizing the effect of the IDL is quoted as "There was a dénouement [sic] ready found". Why the [sic]? The climax of the story is arriving in London 5 min late; realizing that he's on time after all and the story has a happy end is thus quite correctly called a dénouement: "Conflicts are resolved, creating normality for the characters and a sense of catharsis, or release of tension and anxiety, for the reader.. Jpatokal (talk) 08:36, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Nellie Bly?

"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 himself in Amiens. Her book about the trip, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, became a best seller." Isn't 'Nellie Bly' a pen name for Elizabeth Jane Cochran? Calineed (talk) 08:08, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Reform Club Members

We know Robert Morley plays one of Fogg's friends in the club. Is Desmond "Q" Llewellyn sitting on Morley's left when Fogg first makes the bet? Grassynoel (talk) 14:12, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Not according to IMDb. Doniago (talk) 13:42, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Dead or broken Links; Videobook links

There are some dead or broken links. And someone constantly deletes links to precious {in my opinion} and rare (to English and to French versions) videobooks {audiobook with Text on Screen} on YouTube which are very helpful for foreign language learners much more than just audiobooks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.108.105.22 (talk) 12:52, 3 December 2011 (UTC)