Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours (1872)
Jules Verne

   Such a classic of French literature, yet we hadn't read it, for some reasons. Sure, it's been adapted a thousand times, so many times that we had some passages in mind which don't occur in the original novel.

   There's no zeppelin in the book, for example! Can you believe it ? Actually, the first airships were only in their infancy stages at the time of writing, and commercial zeppelins would only come to be a thing in the 1910's, about 40 years after publication! So, that makes sense. 

   Anyway, this is a quite interesting book. Very dated, obviously, that's the point, but if you put yourself in the mind of readers of the time, it becomes quite the experience.

   It tells the story of Phileas Fogg, super boring charact- I mean our hero, a phlegmatic English gentleman, which would embark with his valet Passepartout on a journey through several continents and even more oceans, use creative and unusual ways of transportation - reaching to extremes like riding an elephant through the Indian jungle or sailing an iceboat (yes, that's a real thing) in the American midwest - all of that, to win a bet about whether or not he could go around the World in a certain amount of time. 80 days, to be precise.

   That brings the main weakness of the book, in my humble opinion : Phileas Fogg is not quite the character this story deserves..? He never changes, goes through the whole book (and the whole World) stoically, without learning anything about the places he goes through nor the people that he meets. Literally without even going out of the steamer's cabin half of the time he is in a port with time on his hands. I was seriously expecting a change of heart through the book, something like having him understand that the original goal of his travels were the wrong ones, and acting differently according to that. But no, for our main character, everything was and stayed about time-tables, about looking at his schedule instead of out the window. 

   It's even more frustrating that the narration gives him opportunities to have these realizations all the time! He meets a person from a radically different culture - Mrs Aouda, which he helps saving from public execution in India - and stays with her for half of his travels, for example, he also risks his schedule while saving Passepartout from the Sioux attack of the train in the U.S... But no, once every snag is resolved, he's back on the road unchanged, quickest way to London once again.

   The frustration culminates in the end of the book when, just before the final twist revealing that Fogg actually won his bet, when he is at his lowest, Mrs Aouda declares him her eternal love or something like this, him too and he tells Passepartout he won more than the bet from his travels blablablabla.

   So ridiculous. He never showed any attention to nor any interest in her, apart from the vague protection he wants to offer her out of "gentlemanness". And vice-versa, she's impressed by how he would feel loyal for his valet, to the point of risking his bet to save him. But that's kind of a low bar ? Also, he already left Passepartout before without waiting for him because of his schedule. Actually, Fogg was about to let HER be executed because they had to leave, Passepartout was the one risking his life to save her!

   Phileas Fogg, in the narration, never deserves the happy ending that he gets.

   Next time Jules Verne wants to write a story, he should probably consult me first. That's what I'm saying, actually.

   That long rant out of the way, there's a lot of positive things to say about this book. The character of Passepartout is great, always using his time to visit the places they go through, always curious, always loyal and trying to do his best. The intrigue with the detective following them is quite good as well.

   Putting yourself in the mind of someone from the end of the 19th century really makes this book work on another level. Passing the white savior vibe of the Indian princess rescue storyline, and the borderline colonialism-apology that are unfortunately not that surprising for the time, the idea that Jules Verne had, conveying the progress in transportation, the changing scale of the World at the time made possible by new technologies - quite recent at the time - must have been quite amazing for the period. We are talking about a World long before the television, let alone internet. Most people would only dream about travelling to their own Capital city, and only hear quite occasionally about other countries. In this context, the escapism of reading about elephant riding in India, or the time-tables of ferries to Yokohama is unparalleled.

   The plot twist at the end is also quite good for the time. The idea is that Fogg failed to arrive in London in 80 days by a slight delay. As he appears defeated, Passepartout realizes that, traveling East-ward, they gained a whole 24 hours going through 24 time zones, and therefore managed to go around the World in 79 days instead. Today, everybody is familiarized with the idea of timezones, our phones and computers even adjusting themselves every time we teletransport ourselves (by using planes) from one to another. But in 1872, this must have been such a great twist.

   Jules Verne writes as well in a very realistic manner, very descriptive. An amount of detail and precision that Phileas Fogg as a character also mirrors, that helps to anchor the story in reality. It feels like a real trip. 

   It's also quite an adventure. The character of Fogg, as boring and stoic as he is, has a stubbornness which can also be admired. The challenges of delays and inconveniences on his route and his ability to still push through get quite addictive, and it's quite understandable that this book inspired so many movies and especially animated series. "How will they make it out of this one ?!"

   Funnily enough, at the time of reading, we were ourselves blocked by an Arctic winter storm in Hammerfest, one of the World's Northernmost cities, in the North of Norway, having to ourselves navigate through ferry cancelations and roadblocks due to avalanches. Having to find our way out of Hammerfest and reading about Fogg bribing his way to Liverpool, burning the very ship he sails on, was quite entertaining.

   In the end, it was quite a good read. Great piece of literature. Only wish to read the sequel where Passepartout gets his independence and takes time to travel on his own.