Jules Verne offers us some serious wanderlust in Around the World in Eighty Days. He provides an amazing backdrop of the world as Phileas Fogg zips through various countries on his quest for global conquest in a time crunch. While this gives us a serious case of wanderlust, perhaps the most interesting thing is that a stuffy British introvert would accept a wager that takes him around the world in the first place. Things are bound to get messy in Phileas Fogg's perfectly manicured life by taking on a challenge like that. We're thinking that ol' Phileas has a bit more of the adventure bug in him than he'd like to admit.
Questions About Exploration
- What does exploration mean for Passepartout? He only wanted to settle down and serve a guy. Why does fate deal him another hazardous journey?
- Does Phileas Fogg have a taste for the adventurous side of life, even though he'd like us to think otherwise? How come he never leaves his darn hotel room?
- Why does Phileas Fogg even bother accepting the around the world wager? He has money, a servant, a mansion—what more could he need?
Chew on This
This book argues that life itself is an adventure that can't be avoided, calculated, sworn off, or foreseen.
Phileas Fogg's hard-core gambling problem leads him to accept a crazy bet to go around the world.