Around the World in Eighty Days

1873, 1956 Great Illustrated Classics (Dodd, Mead & Company) edition
Jules Verne, translated by George M. Towle
Around the World in Eighty Days
Original and purchase price unknown
Slightly worn hardcover
B-

Not as good as Journey to the Centre of the Earth, although the second half, with its journey across the U.S. and its twist of an ending, is better than the first half, with the detour in India.  As Anthony Boucher notes in the introduction, Verne is "less than accurate in depicting the Hindu or the Mormon religion."  There's definitely a sense of colonialism in the novel, with its celebration of English imperialism and the depiction of both kinds of "Indians" as savages.  (Sioux warriors attack the train and kidnap Passepartout.)  Also, because of the rushed nature of the travels and the unemotional personality of Phileas (not Phineas) Fogg, I feel more removed from the journey than in JttCotE.  I haven't seen a movie adaptation, not even the "major film version" that the introduction says is forthcoming (it would go on to win five Oscars), but I suspect that I would get more sense of the journey if there were a visual element.

As for that twist, it is ironic because Fogg is so precise, particularly about time, and yet he's forgotten that travelling east, the days are getting shorter and he "gains" a day by constantly resetting his watch.  His servant Passepartout keeps his watch on London time (despite being French) and "it would have betrayed this fact, if it had marked the days as well as the hours and minutes."

This book is of course a celebration of then modern technology, although there are times when Fogg and his companions must get around by elephant, sledge, and their own feet.  The journey could now be made in much less than eighty days, but it's still impressive.

This edition has a pleasant, smooth translation, with the charming footnote:  "A somewhat remarkable eccentricity on the part of the London clocks!", when they all strike ten minutes before nine.  There are "biographical illustrations and drawings reproduced from early editions," which add appeal, although it does annoy me that one of them spoils Aouda's fate.  The love interest is India-Indian but fair-skinned and educated like an Englishwoman, so we know it's OK that (spoiler) Fogg marries her.  Like I said, it's a very colonial book, although I guess Fogg and Passepartout are English and French stereotypes respectively.