Around the World in Eighty Days: The Grand Wager

On the morning of October second, Mr. Fogg hired a new French servant named Jean Passepartout. Passepartout, a lively former acrobat with a good heart, was delighted to find a master whose orderly habits promised a quiet, peaceful life. 'At last,' Passepartout thought with relief, 'I have found a master as regular as a clock!'

That afternoon at the Reform Club, Mr. Fogg sat down to play cards with his wealthy companions. The conversation turned to a sensational bank robbery in London and a recent article in the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper claimed that with the opening of a new railway across India, it was now possible to travel around the entire globe in just eighty days.

'That is purely theoretical!' scoffed one of the card players. 'Unforeseen delays, storms, shipwrecks, and railway accidents would make such a journey impossible!' But Phileas Fogg laid down his cards calmly and looked at his colleagues: 'The unforeseen does not exist in mathematics. Eighty days are all that are required, and I will prove it.'

'Will you bet on it, Fogg?' challenged one of the gentlemen. 'I will,' Fogg replied without blinking. 'I have twenty thousand pounds deposited at Baring Brothers. I will wager that entire fortune that I will complete the tour of the world in eighty days or less. I shall leave London tonight at eight forty-five, and return to this exact room on Saturday, December twenty-first, at eight forty-five in the evening.'

The gentlemen were stunned, but they accepted the staggering wager. Mr. Fogg walked straight home, called Passepartout, and announced: 'Pack a small traveling bag with two shirts and three pairs of socks. We are leaving for Dover in ten minutes to go around the world!' Passepartout stood frozen with his jaw open, watching his dream of a quiet life evaporate into thin air.

With twenty thousand pounds in bank notes packed into a leather carpetbag, master and servant boarded the evening train from London. Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard detective named Fix received a mistaken report that the mysterious bank robber matched Phileas Fogg's exact physical description! Convinced that Fogg was fleeing the country with stolen money, Detective Fix began a relentless pursuit that would span three continents.

Across the choppy waters of the English Channel, through the snowy peaks of the Alps, and down to the sunlit docks of the Suez Canal, Phileas Fogg remained completely unshakeable. Every hour was calculated, every connection recorded in his small notebook. Thus began one of the greatest races against time in literary history—a journey that would test the power of human determination, friendship, and courage against the vast circumference of the earth.