PHILEAS FOGG
Please use our A-Z INDEX to navigate this site or return HOME
|
|
Map of the route taken by Phileas Fogg, starting in London, then proceeding east to Suez, Bombay, Calcutta, Hong Kong , Yokohama, San Francisco, New York, and across the Atlantic ocean to Ireland, then Liverpool England, and back to London. The route planner below is for a circumnavigation on water in under 80 days, using hydrogen, as per the author's prediction in The Mysterious Island. It would be a major achievement if this was arranged to honor the 150th anniversary of his publication.
A modern day counterpart, would just as easily suggest that technology had improved to the point where a ship might ply the oceans, departing from the River Thames, and returning to London in under 80 days. Even where that is a longer route than absolutely necessary for a world navigation.
Fogg has a philosophy in life to never worry about things which are beyond his control but to leave no stone unturned if they are. He is a balanced fellow not just in his thought processes but also his physiognomy which is a true manifestation of his psychology. He is a man of regular and precise habits which may border eccentricity. He doesn't like to be drawn into useless confrontations as he believes them to be utterly dissipative akin to friction. He is quiet and reserved in his expressions but decisive in his actions. He likes to travel light and has good knowledge of geography. He is not immune to softer emotions like love. He has no moral compunctions about using money to grease the wheels yet he has his own high moral standards specific to his era. He is brave but not foolhardy and doesn't mind slipping into masterful inactivity when required.
Phileas Fogg represents the lifestyle of many English gentlemen, who indulge themselves in social habits, with strict views on the world around them, while not usually engaging such as to soil their hands. The one exception, that turns Fogg's life upside down, is the attitudes of his peers to advancement in transportation, that is shrinking the world. At first he simply repeats his assertions as to calculations he has made, but as his contemporaries escalate the challenge as to his understanding of the world, that they claim is wide of the mark, they make outrageous bets, Fogg is forced to meet the dares being thrown at him, and finally picks up the gauntlet. The aim being to prove the pompous club members incorrect.
PLOT - AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
The story starts in London on October 2, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a wealthy, solitary, unmarried gentleman with regular habits. The source of his wealth is not known and he lives modestly. He fires his former valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving
water two degrees too cold. He hires as a replacement
Passepartout, a Frenchman of around 30 years of age.
Jules Verne is known as the Father of Science Fiction
Where Jules Verne's suggested that it might be possible to travel Around The World In 80 Days, we would like to extend that ethos to include traveling in a Zero Emission yacht (ZEWT or ZEV) driven by electric hydro-jets? With the advent of solar power and liquid hydrogen, it is a distinct possibility - on a scale of the wager that the legendary Philleas Fogg entered into at the Reform Club in 1872.
|
|
...
|
|
JULES VERNE LINKS & REFERENCE
http://jules-verne.org
|
|
Please use our A-Z INDEX to navigate this site or return HOME
This website is Copyright © 2021 Jameson Hunter Ltd
|