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Around the World in Eighty Days Facts & Worksheets

Around the World in Eighty Days was one of the most successful novels by French novelist Jules Verne.

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Around the World in Eighty Days was one of the most successful novels by French novelist Jules Verne. It was published in 1872 as part of his adventure series Voyages extraordinaires. It is the story of Phileas Fogg, a wealthy Englishman who entered a wager, determined to prove that one can travel around the world in eighty days

See the fact file below for more information on the Around the World in Eighty Days or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Around the World in Eighty Days worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

THE LIFE OF JULES VERNE

  • Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828, on Île Feydeau, a small artificial island in the town of Nantes
  • He was a French novelist, playwright, and poet who, with his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, penned an adventure series which they called Voyages extraordinaires.
  • He is the second most translated individual author next to Agatha Christie since 1979.
  • His father sent him to Paris to finish his law studies. He fed his passion for theatre by writing numerous plays.
  • He graduated in January 1851 and worked as a broker when he met his wife Honorine de Viane Morel. He did not entirely give up writing and wrote Five Weeks in a Balloon which was published in 1863. This was the start of his writing career.

THE CHARACTERS

  • Phileas Fogg – a wealthy and eccentric Englishman who has no known family and lives alone with a valet. His story is a mystery for the people who know him. He is well informed about the world and yet is not one to divulge any information about himself. He is mostly impassive and silent; his social life is limited to several associates he plays whist with at the Reform Club.
  • Jean Passepartout – a newly hired valet who has vast experience in different employment. He is looking forward to a quiet life with his new employer after studying Fogg’s habit and lifestyle. Passepartout is loyal, polite, and has a great sense of right and wrong.
  • Aouda – a widow about to be burned with her deceased husband but who is saved by Passepartout and Fogg. She is supposed to live with a relative in Hong Kong but finds out that they already left for Holland years ago. She surprises the men around her when she starts shooting the Sioux when they attack on the train.
  • Detective Fix – a police officer who tags along in Fogg’s journey around the world with the hope of arresting him. He only sees what he wants to see, which is why he considers Fogg as the thief despite much glaring evidence that he is not. Toward the end of the novel, he seems to be changing his mind. However, he still arrests Fogg when they get to England only to know that the real thief was captured three days earlier.
  • Sir Francis Cromarty – a gentleman Fogg meets on the train who also helps them save Mrs. Aouda. He is one of the few characters who sees Fogg behind his impassive demeanour.
  • Batulcar – an acrobat troupe owner in Yokohama where Passepartout was briefly employed.
  • Captain Andrew Speedy – the owner of the ship Henrietta which Fogg and his friends use to get to England.

THE PLOT

  • Phileas Fogg enters a 20,000-pound wager with his Reform Club associates betting that he can travel around the world in eighty days as the newspaper suggests. He needs to be back on December 21 at 8:45 p.m.
  • He goes home and asks his newly hired valet Passepartout to accompany him on a journey and pack their bags.
  • The wager becomes a national sensation. The news calms down when Detective Fix accuses Fogg of being the bank robber who stole 55,000 pounds from the Bank of England. According to him, his travel was a ruse to avoid being arrested.
  • Fogg and Passepartout’s first stop is in Suez, Egypt. Fogg has his passport stamped for documentation. Detective Fix, motivated by the reward money, is not convinced that Fogg is innocent despite the gentleman wanting his journey to be documented, which a thief wouldn’t do. He requests for a warrant to be sent to Bombay.
  • Passepartout roams around Bombay when he is asked to run some errands. He angers some priests when he enters a temple with his slippers on. They get into a fight, but he manages to escape leaving his slippers, and just in time to board the train to Bombay.
  • The train stops due to the unfinished railroad. Fogg buys an elephant and hires a Parsee to be their guide. They are stopped by a Suttee procession, where a drugged widow of a prince is to be burned with him. Touched by the story of the widow, Fogg decides to rescue her.
  • Fogg, Passepartout and the woman they save, Mrs. Aouda, arrive in Calcutta and are arrested for Passepartout’s crime of entering the temple. Fix convinces the priests to file a case as he is still waiting for the warrant. However, Fogg posts bail for himself and his valet.
  • They board the ship to Singapore where Fogg and Mrs. Aouda start to grow closer, and to Hong Kong where Fix has his last chance to arrest Fogg as it is the last British territory.
  • The three friends are set to travel on a ship to Yokohama but Passepartout, drunk, drugged and tricked by Fix, is unable to tell his employer the change of the ship’s scheduled departure, resulting in him travelling alone.
  • Fogg, Mrs. Aouda, and Fix, who introduces himself as a friend of Passepartout, arrive in Yokohama later than Passepartout as their ship has to detour in Shanghai, China.
  • Passepartout gets a job in an acrobat troupe which he immediately leaves when he sees Fogg and Mrs. Aouda. Fogg pays the owner for the damages incurred by his valet’s sudden departure.
  • The four sail to America. Passepartout beats Fix when he sees him on the ship. The detective promises that he will not do anything to Fogg now. He is not allowed to arrest him in a non-British territory anyway.
  • Passepartout convinces Fogg to purchase revolvers as their train is going to pass by the Sioux territory.
  • The train ride is not smooth. The train is almost unable to cross a collapsing bridge, which falls a few minutes after passing it. Sioux attack the train, Passepartout is kidnapped but thankfully is rescued the following morning by the soldiers and Fogg.
  • As their train continued its journey without them the night before, Fogg purchases a sledge to catch the train to New York City. However, when they reach the dock, the ship going to Liverpool has already left.
  • Fogg finds another ship and offers a shipowner, Captain Speedy, 8000 dollars to allow the four of them to board his ship.
  • When they finally arrive in Liverpool at 11:40 a.m. on December 21, Fix arrests Fogg.
  • Aouda does not believe that Fogg is a thief and Passepartout blames himself for not exposing Fix. However, at 2:33 p.m., Fix releases Fogg as the real thief was captured three days earlier. Fogg arrives at the Reform Club at 8:50 p.m., five minutes after the deadline.
  • Saddened by the turn of events, they go back to Fogg’s home the day after. Fogg asks his valet to attend to Mrs. Aouda’s needs after settling her in her room.
  • That evening, Fogg visits Mrs. Aouda. She confesses her love to him and asks him to marry her. Fogg enthusiastically reciprocates her confession and agrees to marry her. He asks Passepartout to look for a priest that will marry them at 8:05 P.M.
  • The priest tells the valet that it is only Saturday and not Sunday. Passepartout rushes to his employer, drags him to the cab and explains that they gained one day on their journey because they had traveled constantly eastward and towards the sun.
  • As the thief was arrested three days before, Fogg’s name is cleared, and a crowd is waiting for his arrival at the Reform Club. At 8:44:57, he enters the door of the Reform Club and says: “Here I am, Gentlemen.”

THEMES  PRESENT IN AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS

  • Love and Friendship – Fogg lives in solitude with just his valet as his companion. After firing his only companion for some superficial reason, it is fair to say that they were not even friends. Fogg’s travels bring out the human inside him, which he was very reluctant to show. Circumstances push him to acknowledge that he really cares about the people around him, being willing to risk his own life for them.
  • Fogg’s character development, from Passepartout’s comparing him to one of Madame Tussaud’s wax figures who can talk to someone ready to embrace life with love and friendship, is one of the highlights of the book.
  • Logic versus emotion – This can also be renamed as Fogg versus Passepartout as they embody the words respectively. Fogg’s life has been guided by logic. It makes his life comfortable and predictable. Emotion guides Passepartout’s. He is easily affected by the events happening around him. Toward the end of the book, it becomes evident that emotion is more valuable than logic. Fogg, no matter how comfortable his life was before, is able to make decisions based on his feelings which help end the story on a happy note.
  • Value of money – The wager made by Fogg and the reward money Fix is actively pursuing is one of the driving forces of the plot. The author makes it seem that Fogg is so invested in winning the wager that he is willing to give up Passepartout if needed. But his willingness to delay his schedule to save Mrs. Aouda and to look for Passepartout in Yokohama shows that he is more than who he claims to be. Fogg does not earn money despite winning as his expenses total 19000 pounds. The 1000 pounds left is divided among the four of them including Fix. The Detective, on the other hand, is consistent in seeking the reward money. He refuses to see the glaring evidence that shows how impossible it is for Fogg to be the bank thief. After all the kindness Fogg showed him, the Detective still arrests him, compromising the wager he was about to win.
  • Perseverance – The one admirable trait these characters have in common. Nobody gives up, despite the numerous obstacles they encounter. Fogg does not give up on Passepartout and looks for him in Yokohama, and when the ship that will bring them to Liverpool leaves early. They persist in rescuing Mrs. Aouda despite waiting for the opportunity to do so in two days. Passepartout looks for another way to live when he is separated from his employer, and Fix does not give up hope of arresting Fogg.

Around the World in Eighty Days Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Around the World in Eighty Days across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Around the World in Eighty Days worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Around the World in Eighty Days which was one of the most successful novels by French novelist Jules Verne. It was published in 1872 as part of his adventure series Voyages extraordinaires. It is the story of Phileas Fogg, a wealthy Englishman who entered a wager, determined to prove that one can travel around the world in eighty days

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Around the World in Eighty Days Facts
  • Verne’s Life
  • Fogg and Friends
  • Fogg: Now and Then
  • Who Said It?
  • On the Pages
  • Bits of Adventure
  • Countries to See
  • Story Inquiry
  • Transportation in Action
  • Adventure of a Lifetime

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