French literature summaries - 2021
Short summary - Around the World in Eighty Days - Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours
Jules Gabriel Verne
VERY BRIEF: 19th century. An Englishman goes around the earth on a bet in 80 days, simultaneously rescues an Indian beauty, fights with Indians and crosses the ocean on a hijacked steamer, not suspecting that a detective is pursuing him.
Still from the film Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
The division into chapters is conditional.
London, England
Phileas Fogg was a mysterious person. No one knew what this gentleman was doing, it was only known that he was rich and lonely.
Phileas Fogg - a wealthy eccentric Englishman, a tall and handsome gentleman of about forty, lonely, punctual, cold-blooded, uncommunicative and generous
Fogg was a member of the London Reform Club. His whole day was scheduled by the minute, he did not leave London for many years, but he knew a lot about the most remote places on earth.
On October 2, 1872, Fogg hired a new servant, Frenchman Jean Passepartout, who had spent a stormy youth and now dreamed of a quiet, measured life. Upon learning of Fogg's pedantry, Passepartout decided that he would be the ideal host for him.
Jean Passepartout - Fogg's servant, French, big man with full lips and curly hair, in his youth was an acrobat and a firefighter, his name translated from French means "prolaza", "dodger"
In the evening of the same day, members of the Reform Club discussed the robbery of the Bank of England. The police suspected a respectable gentleman spotted at the bank. Police officers were dispatched to all major ports, but the culprit disappeared.
Fogg noticed that the thief was probably already far away, because the world was so small that it was possible to travel around the world in eighty days. The members of the club replied that it was impossible to go around the ground during this period due to various unforeseen difficulties.
Fogg then made a wager with the Reform Club that he would travel around the world in eighty days, and put half his fortune on the line. He will lose this money if he does not return to the Reform Club on December 21, at eight forty-five minutes in the evening.
Mr. Fogg was ready. In his hands he held Bradshaw's famous railroad and steamship guide and guide, which was to serve him during the journey.
Egypt and the Suez Canal
That same evening, after capturing the remaining half of the state, Fogg, along with a stunned Passepartout, crossed France and arrived on schedule in the Egyptian port of Suez.
Police Agent Fix, who was on duty in Suez, learned that among the passengers of one of the ferries there was a gentleman, according to the description, similar to the man seen at the Bank of England, and suspected Fogg of robbery.
Fix is a police agent, short and thin, with an intelligent face and attentive eyes, corrosive and tireless, does not doubt his detective abilities. The
agent met Passepartout, he told how they hurriedly left London, and admitted that he did not believe in the bet. Passepartout believed that there was something else behind this haste.
Fix was finally convinced that Fogg was a thief. He demanded that a warrant for his arrest be sent to Bombay, and he himself followed Fogg to India on the same ship.
The vessel passed the Suez Canal, two days ahead of schedule.
India
In Bombay, Fix discovered that the warrant for Fogg's arrest had not yet arrived. Passepartout realized that Fogg was not joking and that he really intended to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Walking in Bombay, Passepartout desecrated one of the temples by going into it with shoes on. Fix decided to make this incident a pretext for his arrest and went to Calcutta separately from the travelers.
Fogg and Passepartout decided to use the railroad that runs through all of India. It turned out that in one place the road was not completed. Traveling on an elephant through the jungle to the nearest station, the travelers rescued the young widow Auda, whom, according to an ancient Indian custom, they wanted to burn at the stake together with her deceased Raja husband.
Auda is a young Indian woman, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, a widow, a fair-skinned beauty, who received a European education, courageous, not afraid of trials.
Sly Passepartout, disguised as a dead rajah, carried the beauty straight out of a burning fire.
The old rajah has come to life! Like a ghost, he rose from his bed, took his young wife in his arms and walked down from the fire, enveloped in clouds of smoke that gave him a ghostly appearance.
It turned out that Auda was orphaned and could no longer stay in India, where she would be found and burned. Fogg undertook to take her to Hong Kong, to a wealthy relative.
After spending the two days he had won to save Auda, Fogg arrived in Calcutta right on schedule, October 25th. Right at the train station, Passepartout was arrested for desecrating a Bombay temple, and Fogg had to pay a lump sum as bail.
To Fix's chagrin, the warrant for Fogg's arrest had not yet reached Calcutta, and the travelers went unhindered by boat to Hong Kong. Fix followed them.
From India to Japan
On the steamer Fix renewed his acquaintance with Passepartout. It seemed strange to the Frenchman that this man followed them everywhere. He decided that the members of the Refom Club had hired Fix "to oversee the correct fulfillment of the conditions of the round-the-world trip."
The steamer was a day late; Fogg did not make it to the ship bound for Yokohama, but found another departing early in the morning. It turned out that a relative of Auda had moved to Europe. Fogg invited her to go there with him.
When ordering the cabins, Passepartout learned that the ship would leave for Yokohama not in the morning, but this evening. He did not have time to warn the owner - Fix lured him into an opium den and tried to convince him that Fogg was a thief and he needed to be detained until a warrant arrived. The faithful Passepartout refused to believe it. Fix got him drunk and slipped the opium pipe.
In the morning, Fogg discovered that the ship had sailed for Yokohama without him. Undaunted, the imperturbable Englishman hired a pilot ship, whose captain agreed to take him to Shanghai, where the steamer going to Yokohama calls. Fix gained confidence in Fogg and swam with him and Auda.
Having got into a tropical storm on the way, Fogg made it to Shanghai and right at the entrance to the bay, he boarded a ship bound for Yokohama.
Passepartout, meanwhile, in a semi-conscious state, reached the ship on which he was to sail to Japan with Fogg. Coming to his senses, he remembered that he had not warned the owner about the changed time of departure, but it was already too late.
In Yokohama, Passepartout, by a miraculous coincidence, met Fogg and Auda and went with them to San Francisco on a large paddle steamer.
On the steamer Passepartout met Fix and beat him, but then they made a truce. Fogg left the English colonies. Fix received a warrant, but could no longer arrest him and was interested in the Englishman getting to England as soon as possible. Fix swore that he would help Fogg in everything, and Passepartout decided not to tell the owner.
United States of America
On December 3rd, the steamer arrived in San Francisco, and in the evening the travelers boarded a train crossing the North American continent.
They had restaurant cars, terrace cars, saloon cars, coffee house cars at their disposal. The only thing missing was theater cars. But over time, they will appear.
Auda had long been imbued with tender feelings for Fogg, but he still seemed cold and unflappable.
The train, crossing the endless prairies, was attacked by a tribe of bloodthirsty Indians. The passengers began to defend themselves, and the leader of the Indians climbed into the locomotive and unknowingly pressed the lever that increased the speed of the train.
Ahead was a station with a military fort, and the train had to be stopped near it, otherwise the Indians would kill all passengers. Risking his life, Passepartout crawled under the carriages and unhooked them from the locomotive, after which he was kidnapped by the escaped Indians.
Fogg went for Passepartout and brought him back, but he lost a lot of time, and the train did not wait for him. Fix saved the situation. He found the owner of the sailing sleigh, the travelers made it to New York, but still missed the steamer to Liverpool.
Atlantic Ocean and again England
Fogg found a merchant steamer, whose intractable captain agreed to take them only to Bordeaux. As soon as the steamer sailed into the ocean, Fogg locked the captain in the cabin, bribed the crew, and set off for Liverpool, steering the ship like a real sailor.
On the way, the ship ran out of coal. Fogg released the captain, bought a steamer from him and burned all its wooden parts the rest of the way, but Liverpool did not have enough fuel. The travelers disembarked in Ireland, boarded an express mail train, and arrived in Liverpool on the morning of December 21, where Fix arrested Fogg and put him in a cell. Passepartout had a bad conscience for not telling Fogg who Fix really was.
Advertising: It
soon became clear that the real thief had long been detained. Fogg was released, he ordered a special train to London, but was five minutes late and lost the bet. A despondent gentleman offered Aude the remnants of his fortune, but the woman declared that she loved him and would be his wife. It turned out that Fogg also fell in love with Auda, but hid his feelings behind an external dispassion.
While negotiating with the priest about the wedding, Passepartout learned that today is not Sunday, but Saturday. They arrived in London not on December 21, but on December 20, as they were moving east. At the intersection of each degree of longitude, the day of the travelers decreased by four minutes, and these minutes gathered at 24 hours.
Fogg managed to enter the Reform Club and win a bet. His wedding took place the next day. On this journey, Fogg spent half his fortune, but won much more - the love of a beautiful woman.