Vintage Novels {Around the World in 80 Days}

Are you ready for the classic tale of world travel and high adventure?

Of course you are!

And of course you've heard of M. Verne's famous travelogue, being that you are interesting, intelligent people. Perhaps you've even read it. How could anyone not have heard of Phileas Fogg and Passepartout's famous journey?

If you've never read it, then let me tell you -it's way better than any film version.

If by some bizarre twist of fate and you've never heard of this 1873 novel before, let me briefly tell you about it.

On the night of 2 October 1872, Phileas Fogg, the most punctual gentleman in London and mysteriously wealthy (as people from mysterious backgrounds usually are) is playing whist at the Reform Club (as he does every night) gets into a debate with his friends over world travel and makes a wager of £ 20,000 (about £ 1.3 million today) that he can travel around the world in eighty days or less. Shoving a couple of shirts and £ 20,000 in cash (English pounds were like having a Visa card, accepted everywhere) and dragging poor Passepartout along, he immediately sets off for Dover. What follows next is an exhilarating tale of ship wrecks, missed connections, drunkenness, elephants, mistaken identities, Cowboys and Indians, bribes, mutiny, Japanese circuses and of course train travel. However, there is no hot air balloon scene, that comes from the film. He even manages (or rather Passepartout does) to rescue the beautiful Princess Auoda from certain death in the Indian jungle and fall in love with her.

Does he manage to make it back in time?

Of course he does. After all, his honour is at stake, not to mention the money.

But point of the book is not the final outcome of Fogg's travels. It's the journey itself.

M. Verne wrote the book because it was finally possible to travel around the world as a tourist. Just think, within the space of three years before the book was published, the Suez Canal was created, the Americans finished their transcontinental railroad and all of the railways in India were finally linked up. This was the beginning of the tourism industry as we know it today and Around the World in 80 Days is the greatest travelogue ever written, fictional or otherwise.

For some reason this book has never been taken seriously. It is seen as just a Boys' Own adventure story rather than as a real novel with complex characters. We never hear Fogg's thoughts, we just know his character. We know what Passepartout is thinking and we learn bits and pieces of his life story throughout. Auoda is shown to be an intelligent and independent woman. After all, she was educated in Europe, which is why Fogg decided to rescue her and she can play whist. We are even shown poor Detective Fix's thoughts. But we never know much about Fogg, which makes him so interesting a character and the fact that he is the one character who has been completely altered by the journey. Yet for some reason there has never been a critical edition or a proper translation of the book. There aren't even any academic articles on the book, and there are articles on everything in literature that you could possibly think of.

Why do I love this book so much?

Because it's so much fun to read and imagine yourself right there with Fogg, Passepartout and Auoda.

Of course the 1956 film is the most famous adaptation, it did win Best Picture after all and it is littered with famous cameos. Around the World in 80 Days is not that true an adaptation, since Michael Todd made it as a grand spectacle and filmed it entirely on location. I found Cantinflas as Passepartout annoying after the first hour and didn't like that the film seemed to focus on him. Shirley MacLaine is clearly miscast as Auoda, you can see her makeup melting. However, David Niven is absolutely perfect as Fogg. David Niven is Phileas Fogg because he's David Niven and no one else but David Niven could play the character as M. Verne wrote it.

There is also the 1989 three part television version, starring Pierce Brosnan as Fogg, even though he's clearly too young to play him. Like the 1956 film, this one also adds bits that weren't in the book in order to make it more visually thrilling. However, Eric Idle is perfect as Passepartout and Peter Ustinov is brilliant as Detective Fix and I loved Henry Gibson's cameo as the conductor. Even though Pierce Brosnan is great at Fogg, I would have preferred to have seen David Niven as Fogg because he's perfect as the character. But I do recommend that you watch this version since you've probably never heard of it.

Michael Palin's travel programme (shot in 1988) is my favourite version. It's also the closest to the book. What makes this version the best (I'm saying it's the best, you can argue with me if you want) is that he's not only following in the footsteps of Fogg, but he's doing it more than 100 years after Fogg, using only surface transport and proving not only is it still just as difficult to travel the around in 80 days, but that if you choose to take up Fogg's wager, you too can have the same sort of adventures that he had.

Michael Palin is right when he says in the opening episode that we travel nowadays more than humans have ever travelled before, but we are seeing less and less of the world thanks to the "conveniences" of modern air travel. And that's what make undertaking a journey such as this so wonderful. It's a way of seeing this rapidly shrinking world for the truly vast beauty that it is.

Is it still possible to travel around the world in 80 days just by using surface transport?

I don't know, but I hope it is.

If you would like me to undertake this experiment, I will accept any donations, however large, through my PayPal account.

Portland, Oregon

I had a week off of work and I thought very carefully about were I wanted to go, since I wanted to leave the country. Europe was definitely out due to time and budget constraints. Then I thought about maybe Vegas or San Francisco, but I couldn't afford both a plane ticket and food. Stupid airlines, why do they charge so much?

So, I finally settled on Portland, since it was the furthest city south that I could easily get to. And for a $150 round trip ticket from Amtrak, it was quite a deal.

I stayed at the hostel in the Hawthorne district, which was rather cozy and in a lovely century old house. I didn't know until the night before I left that there are a large number of vintage shops in Hawthorne, so I thought I was in trouble monetary wise, but more on that later.

I much prefer staying in hostels than in hotels. You meet such interesting fellow travellers there and the atmosphere is much more home-like and friendly. Plus you get to share tips and meals and wander off sight-seeing with new friends.

I only wish that the beds were more comfortable.

With the Canadian dollar actually worth slightly more than the American dollar these days, I found the prices to be the same as the ones in Vancouver. Although I was disappointed to discover that the Portland thrift stores were much more expensive, but I suppose that because thrifting has been "discovered" and the prices raised accordingly.

However, restaurants were so very much cheaper, especially in Hawthorne. And the portions were huge! That's probably the best thing about travelling in America, you can eat a cheap large breakfast and not have to eat again until a late supper. I don't even think that I finished one meal there, but I don't normally eat very much anyway.

What I was surprised by was just how much alcohol was readily available and it was so cheap. You could even get a drink in the breakfast places, so you can start your day off right with a beer. I never noticed this before, since I haven't been to the States since I turned 21 and could drink down there (seriously, what a stupid law).

The most touristy thing that I did was to order the local micro brew taster, although it came with larger glasses then I imagined. I really don't like beer, but Portland is very proud of their local brews and it seemed like the thing to try, even though I couldn't finish.

I met a girl at the hostel who was also from Vancouver and we went down to the local grocery store to check it out, cause that's what cool people do. We spent a good ten minutes laughing at finding beer and wine on offer there. Canadians are the only people who find the sight of a booze section next the the dairy section hilarious.

I only explored the Downtown/Chinatown and Hawthorne areas. I would have loved to explore Portland further, but I found the transit system to be infrequent, particularly the light rail and streetcar system that serve downtown and I didn't have access to a car. For a city that prides itself on being "green" they should have a light rail system that runs more frequently then every twenty minutes in the downtown area.

I also spent an entire morning and part of the afternoon in the Art Museum.

Here are some of my favourite shots that I took. I love that Portland has made an effort not only in restoring their old building and signs, but also not tearing them down in favour of walls of glass. Yay for Portland!

I prefer train travel to all other types of travel. Obviously it's more scenic, but it's also much more comfortable. There's leg room and you can get up and walk to the lounge car, have a coffee, read a book, look at the little towns whizzing past, chat with your neighbour and get out to stretch your legs on the platform.

The trip was eight hours each way and it was much easier to pass through customs and the border then by air or car. Plus, I got a window seat on the way back and was able to see the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean.

Ok, I can see that every day in Vancouver, but it looks so much more beautiful on a moving train.

I was pleased that vintage was the same price as it is here, since that meant that I wasn't tempted to buy even more clothes for full closets. But I did buy two dresses and a skirt from Red Light Vintage, which was the cheapest vintage store that I've ever come across. I also went into the Perfume House, which is a very dangerous store. I love wearing perfume and was so happy to find a big bottle of "Je Reviens", which is my favourite and dashed hard to find, for only $50 and a much better deal then buying more clothes.

Portland is of course famous for having Powell's, the largest independent book store possibly in the world. Fortunately, I was limited by what I could carrying. And I forgot the list of books that I wanted at home.

You can see more of my photos in this set on Flickr.