wunder beta📘 Aroundtheworldineightydays
On 2 October 1872 a man who treats shaving-water as a precision instrument walks into the Reform Club on Pall Mall and bets twenty thousand pounds that the Earth is now a timetable. He is due back in this room on Saturday 21 December at a q
What you’ll learn
- A wager in Pall MallPlace the reader in the Reform Club on 2 October 1872 and show that Fogg's journey is a bet on an already printed chain of steamers and railways, not a hunger for discovery.£20,000 against eighty days, due 21 December at 8:45 p.m. Passepartout is hired that morning. The unforeseen, Fogg says, does not exist.
- Fix is a second clockSeparate Fix's warrant-chase from the wager, and correct the Hong Kong episode: opium and a ship that sails early, not a lie about leaving Aouda.Fix matches Fogg to a £55,000 theft. Without a warrant he cannot arrest. In Hong Kong he drugs Passepartout; Fogg misses the Carnatic and takes the Tankadere.
- The railway that was not finishedShow the Kholby gap, the £2,000 elephant, and Aouda's suttee as both a rescue and a colonial set-piece, then refuse to reduce her to cargo.Fifty unbuilt miles. Kiouni bought outright. Aouda, a Parsee widow, is saved 'when he has the time,' and will later be the one who proposes.
- Money can buy motionFollow the broken Hong Kong connection through the Yokohama circus, the American railroad hazards, and the burning of the Henrietta, including the book's Sioux stereotype.Passepartout under a six-foot nose. Buffalo, a collapsing bridge, an attack. Speedy is paid $60,000 so Fogg can burn the ship for steam.
- The day that was gainedWalk the Liverpool arrest, Aouda's proposal, and Verne's own longitude arithmetic, without importing a later International Date Line.Five minutes late — on the wrong day. Aouda proposes. 360° × 4 minutes = 24 hours. Nearly £19,000 spent; £1,000 split, minus the gas.
- What the timetable hidesFix the 1872–73 publication facts, kill the balloon legend, and read the imperial routes without flattening the novel into either praise or denunciation.Le Temps, 6 November to 22 December 1872; Hetzel, 30 January 1873. No balloon. Infrastructure of 1869–70. Wonder travels on British lines.
Questions this course answers
Why does Fogg leave London on 2 October 1872?
Chapter III: the cheque is signed that evening; the train leaves Charing Cross at 8:45 p.m. The bank robbery is a separate crime Fix wrongly pins on him.
Why do they cross from Kholby to Allahabad on an elephant?
Chapter XI. The papers had announced the line as complete. The conductor at Kholby says passengers must find their own conveyance to Allahabad.
What does Fix actually do in Hong Kong?
Chapter XIX. Passepartout refuses the reward. Fix uses drink and an opium pipe. The Carnatic leaves a day early; Fogg is ashore with Aouda.
Put Fogg's last thirty-six hours in the order the book gives them
The arrest is on the 21st as Fogg then counts it. The proposal happens while he thinks he has lost. The wedding errand reveals the extra day.
How does Fogg gain the extra day?
Chapter XXXVII. Verne's explanation is eastward travel and the four-minutes-per-degree sum. He does not invoke a standardised International Date Line.
Match each money figure to what it is in the book
The carpet-bag holds the other half of the fortune. Winning restores the deposit; the travel money is almost gone. The leftover thousand is split, minus the gas.
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