Talk:Around the World in Eighty Days
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[edit] 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)
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)
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)
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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 secons 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)
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)
