Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne: Free EPUB, AZW3 & KEPUB Download
Around the World in Eighty Days
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I — In which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout accept each other, the one as master, the other as man.
Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron—at least that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old.
Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. He was never seen on ’Change, nor at the Bank, nor in the counting-rooms of the “City”; no ships ever came into London docks of which he was the owner; he had no public employment; he had never been entered at any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple, or Lincoln’s Inn, or Gray’s Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded in the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen’s Bench, or the Ecclesiastical Courts. He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal Institution or the London Institution, the Artisan’s Association, or the Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects.
Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.
Follow Phileas Fogg and Passepartout on their breathtaking race across continents and oceans against time itself. Download the complete unabridged edition for your e-reader.
Download Full EPUBAround the World in Eighty Days is an 1873 adventure novel by Jules Verne, translated into English by George Makepeace Towle, and built around a wager, a race against time, and the global travels of Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout.
It follows Phileas Fogg, an exact and unemotional English gentleman, who bets twenty thousand pounds that he can circle the globe in eighty days, and who is pursued across continents and oceans by the detective Fix, who mistakes him for a bank robber.
This Standard Ebooks edition is based on Project Gutenberg eBook #103 and is in the US public domain; readers outside the US should check local laws.
About Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days: Summary, Characters & Themes
Published in 1873, Around the World in Eighty Days is Jules Verne‘s best-known adventure novel. This summary and analysis explores its wager plot, its cast of characters, and its themes of time, order, and human empathy.
The story opens at London’s Reform Club, where the enigmatic, mathematically punctual bachelor Phileas Fogg wagers £20,000—half his entire fortune—that he can circle the planet in eighty days or fewer. Accompanied only by his newly hired French valet, Jean Passepartout, Fogg departs London that very evening.
Their journey across steamships, railways, and elephant tracks is complicated by Inspector Fix, a Scotland Yard detective who mistakes Fogg’s sudden departure and vast reserves of cash for the culprit of a daring Bank of England robbery. Fix relentlessly tails the duo across Egypt, India, Hong Kong, and Japan, awaiting an extradition warrant.
Along their perilous path, Fogg risks both his timetable and fortune to rescue a young Parsi widow, Aouda, from being burned alive in a sati ritual in India, and battles Sioux warriors during a snowbound train crossing of the American plains. Yet upon returning to English soil, Fix arrests Fogg, causing him to miss his deadline by mere minutes.
Resigned to financial ruin in his London home, Fogg receives an unexpected proposal of marriage from Aouda. When Passepartout is dispatched to arrange a quiet wedding, he discovers that by continuously traveling eastward toward the rising sun, they gained a full day, enabling Fogg to stride into the Reform Club at the precise final second to claim victory.
Key Characters & Literary Archetypes
- Phileas Fogg (The Clockwork Gentleman & Stoic Hero): Imperturbable, mathematically precise, and governed entirely by reason. Beneath his icy composure and pocket chronometer beats a chivalric, generous heart willing to sacrifice fortune and victory to preserve human life, culminating in emotional awakening through love.
- Jean Passepartout (The Loyal Trickster & Acrobatic Foil): A resourceful former Parisian acrobat, fireman, and singer whose emotional warmth, physical agility, and impulsive instincts perfectly balance Fogg’s unbending logic. His comical blunders and brave rescues form the vital heartbeat of the voyage.
- Inspector Fix (The Dogged Zealot & Bureaucratic Antagonist): A tenacious Scotland Yard detective driven by single-minded professional ambition and a government reward. Blinded by confirmation bias, his legalistic duty blinds him to Fogg’s obvious nobility, embodying the narrow limitations of institutional authority.
- Aouda (The Rescued Noblewoman & Spiritual Reward): An educated, courageous Parsi widow rescued from human sacrifice in the forests of Bundelkhand. Far from a passive ornament, her steadfast loyalty and emotional candor teach Fogg that genuine human partnership is far more valuable than winning any wager.
- The Reform Club Gentlemen (The Rationalist Establishment): Wealthy, skeptical London financiers and peers who represent Victorian scientific hubris, institutional authority, and the speculative spirit of the British Empire.
Core Literary Themes & Historical Significance
- The Conquest of Time and Space: Verne celebrates the triumphs of Victorian engineering—steamships, telegraphs, and locomotive networks—illustrating how human ingenuity dismantled ancient geographic barriers and unified the modern world.
- Order, Discipline, and Human Empathy: While Fogg begins his journey as an emotionless human calculating machine, the perils of global travel dismantle his sterile isolation, proving that true nobility lies in sacrificial action and heartfelt connection rather than mechanical efficiency.
- The Relativity of Circumstance: The final plot twist regarding the circumnavigation of the earth reminds readers that even the most rigorous human measurements are subject to the grand physical laws of the cosmos and the earth’s natural rotation.
Why Download Our Free EPUB, AZW3 & KEPUB Edition of Around the World in Eighty Days?
Around the World in Eighty Days is Jules Verne’s best-known adventure novel, published in 1873 and translated into English by George Makepeace Towle. Spurred by a £20,000 wager at London’s Reform Club, Phileas Fogg sets out with his French valet Jean Passepartout to circle the globe in eighty days, pursued by the Scotland Yard detective Fix.
This free edition is based on a Project Gutenberg transcription and produced by Standard Ebooks. It is DRM-free, unabridged, and formatted for EPUB, AZW3, and KEPUB readers.
- Standard Ebooks Transcription from Project Gutenberg eBook #103: Preserves the full, unabridged text of the George Makepeace Towle translation across all thirty-seven chapters, including the period geographic terminology and the chapter titles.
- Formatted for Global Itineraries & Urgent Telemetry: Clear separation for the steamer schedules, train departures, telegraph dispatches, and countdown sequences.
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- Verified Public Domain Sources: Based on Project Gutenberg eBook #103 and produced by Standard Ebooks. Public domain in the US; check local laws outside the US.
