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80 days north pole expedition12/10/2023 It was this journey that may have inspired the creation of Phileas Fogg. One traveler, George Francis Train, even made a trip taking only 80 days in 1870. Tourists began to circle the globe regularly, and Verne, as an avid reader, frequently enjoyed accounts of their adventures. The railroads of India were finally linked together in 1870.The Suez Canal opened for traffic just over six months later, November 1869.The Golden Spike was driven home in May 1869, marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. ![]() Travel was always a favorite subject with him, and by 1872 several events had occurred to make global travel easier than ever before: That he succeeded in achieving realism is demonstrated by the interest displayed by his readers, some writing to sign up for the next voyage to the moon, others seriously debating the potential outcome of Fogg’s journey, often believed at the time to be a real event that Verne was merely reporting on! The Mystique of the International Date LineĪs usual, the idea for Around the World in Eighty Days came from Verne’s habit of reading. Then, with the help of his notes, he set to work to craft a story that, while truly extraordinary, would nevertheless seem realistic. Verne would make a note of his inspiration and work the idea in his head until he was ready to start writing. ![]() Often as he read, ideas for new stories would strike him. These he filed away for later use, organizing them carefully by subject. He read extensively, enjoying both literary classics and every newspaper and scientific periodical that he could get his hands on. Verne’s knack for meticulous research served him well in this pursuit. Hence the creation of the Extraordinary Voyages, with its purpose of concluding “in story form survey of the world’s surface and the heavens….” Before the series was finished, Verne had probed the earth from the North Pole to the South, had descended into the crust through a volcano, and had even orbited the moon and traveled on a comet. Now, there was no means of taking my travellers through Africa otherwise than in a balloon, and that is why a balloon is introduced…. I always was greatly interested in geography and travel, and I wanted to give a romantic description of Africa. I wrote Five Weeks in a Balloon, not as a story about ballooning, but as a story about Africa. As Verne himself said of his first Extraordinary Voyage: From a young age, writing and geography were his twin interests. (Verne’s son Michel added to the series after his father’s passing.)Īs Around the World in Eighty Days plainly shows, Jules Verne was not simply a science fiction author, although science interested him and was sometimes featured in his works. The series began in January 1863 with Five Weeks in a Balloon, and by the time of Verne’s death the titles numbered 54. The mistake of the detective Fix has cost Fogg his fortune and proven that the unforeseen can indeed interfere with the best-laid plans to travel around the world in 80 days.įogg spends December 22 quietly at home, until hapless Passepartout breaks into the room and stammers out the mistake-the date is December 21 and Fogg has yet ten minutes to spare! An Extraordinary VoyageĪround the World in Eighty Days was the eleventh installment in a series aptly called Voyages Extraordinaires (Extraordinary Voyages) by Pierre-Jules Hetzel, the fortunate publisher of most of Jules Verne’s fascinating works. But when he steps off of the train, it is already 8:50. ![]()
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