Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

I am not generally a fan of Victorian literature, as I find that it is usually long-winded and humourless. Fortunately Jules Verne is not like this; this novel of his has a sensible pace and an enjoyable story, giving it two things lacking from others of its period.

Just as a side note, one of my least favourite books of all time is Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham. It is not quite a piece of Victorian literature, having been written at the beginning of the twentieth century, but it possesses many of the things I most loathe and detest about reading, things that I associate with the Victorian writers; incredible length, a distinct lack of humour, and writing that bores to tears. I know I'm not doing Maugham's work justice here but I'm just presenting a brief view here to contrast with Around the World in Eighty Days, which does not do any of this.

So then, the story can be briefly summarized as follows; an eccentric Englishman by the name of Phileas Fogg, a reserved gentleman even by the standards of the day, accepts a wager from some colleages of his that he can circumnavigate the world in no more than eighty days. After betting half his fortune on the venture, Fogg drags along his newly hired French valet Passepartout for the ride and uses the other half of his money to oil the wheels of the journey.
Most of the time they spend riding on trains and ships, but there are brief times when they have to resort to more exotic forms of transport, namely an elephant and a sledge. There was no hot-air balloon; that was an invention of the movies. There is a brief paragraph in which the idea of a balloon is discussed, in the later chapters, but it is dismissed as a stupid idea.

What is good about this book? As I said before it is easily digestible, and the writing has a certain amount of humour about it; particularly in its descriptions of Fogg's lack of sociable characteristics. Much of the first chapter is devoted to listing the many fine organisations and clubs in London, saying that Mister Fogg belongs to none of them. Fogg's sole intention for the journey are to prove that such a feat can in fact be achieved, and as such he makes no intention to see the places that he visits, leaving the sightseeing to Passepartout to do for him. In fact, Fogg's only real pleasure in life is the popular card game Whist, the only reason that Fogg has for socialising; he spends most of his idle time during the jouney playing the game with his fellow passengers. 
Another thing I like about the writing of this book is the good-natured stereotyping of English and Americans by Verne. In one section, Passepartout is watching the engine aboard one of the many ships, and remarks to himself:

  "Those valves aren't properly weighted!" he cried. "We aren't moving! That's just like the English! Oh, if this were an American ship, we might blow up, but at least we'd be going faster!"

Ah, it brings a smile to my face to hear both the English and Americans being spoken of in that way by the French; just a casual, good-humoured jibe, one of the things that I love about Asterix, as it happens. Maybe the French just have a natural knack for this sort of thing. 
One final good thing worth mentioning about Around the World in Eighty Days is that it is a celebration of progress; Jules Verne was primarily a science-fiction writer, but here it is a case of 'The Future is Now,' in the Nineteenth Century. At the time of the writing of this book, the world had only just seen the changes necessary in order to see such a trip become possible. A trip round the world, in 1872, was invariably a tour of the British Empire. We are used, nowadays, to viewing the British Empire and the growth of the United States in a negative light, but in the time of the Victorians there was something to be said for having railways that spanned continents, and ports which served as the mixing pots of new cultures.

So then, in conclusion, I enjoyed this book. I liked the character of Phileas Fogg, who is single-minded enough to get around the world in the alotted time no matter the cost, but who is honourable enough to throw everything away in order to rescue his faithful valet from capture, or an Indian princess from certain death. And he knows that a hot-air balloon is not a speedy form of transport. I like the way that he embarks on the journey not for the money, but in order to prove that it was possible. I like Verne's writing style, closer to Jerome K. Jerome than to W. Somerset Maugham, so I might well seek out more of his works after this; a compliment I very rarely bestow on a writer.