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01 - Around The World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: in which Phileas Fogg and Passepartou accept each other. The
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  Speaker 1: one is master, the other as man. Mister Phileas Fogg
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  Speaker 1: lived in eighteen seventy two at number seven Savile Row,
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  Speaker 1: Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in eighteen fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: He was one of the most noticeable members of the
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  Speaker 1: Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention,
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  Speaker 1: and enigmatical personage about whom little was known except that
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  Speaker 1: he was a polished man of the world. People said
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  Speaker 1: that he resembled Byron at least, that his head was byronic.
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  Speaker 1: But he was a bearded, tranquil Byron who might live
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  Speaker 1: on a thousand years without growing old. Certainly an Englishman,
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  Speaker 1: it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner.
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  Speaker 1: He was never seen on change, nor at the bank,
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  Speaker 1: nor in the counting rooms of the city. No ships
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  Speaker 1: ever came into London Docks, of which he was the owner.
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  Speaker 1: He had no public employment. He had never been entered
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  Speaker 1: at any of the inns of court, either at the
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  Speaker 1: Temple or Lincoln's Inn or Gray's inn, nor had his
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  Speaker 1: voice ever resounded in the Court of Chancery, or in
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  Speaker 1: the exchequer, or the Queen's branch or the ecclesiastical courts.
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  Speaker 1: He certainly was not a manufacturer, nor was he a
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  Speaker 1: merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to
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  Speaker 1: the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known
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  Speaker 1: to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal
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  Speaker 1: Institution or the London Institution, the Artisans Association, or the
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  Speaker 1: Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to
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  Speaker 1: none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capitol,
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  Speaker 1: from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects. Phileas Fogg was
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  Speaker 1: a member of the reform and that was all. The
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  Speaker 1: way in which he got admission to this exclusive club
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  Speaker 1: was simple enough. He was recommended by the bearings with
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  Speaker 1: whom he had an open credit. His checks were regularly
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  Speaker 1: paid at sight from his account current, which was always flush.
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  Speaker 1: Was Phileas Fogg rich, undoubtedly, but those who knew him
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  Speaker 1: best could not imagine how he had made his fortune.
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  Speaker 1: And mister Fogg was the last person to whom to
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  Speaker 1: apply for the information. He was not lavish, nor on
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  Speaker 1: the contrary, avaricious, For whenever he knew that money was
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  Speaker 1: needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied
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  Speaker 1: it quietly and sometimes anonymously. He was, in short, the
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  Speaker 1: least communecative of men. He talked very little, and seemed
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  Speaker 1: all the more mysterious for his taciturn manner. His daily
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  Speaker 1: habits were quite open to observation. But whatever he did
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  Speaker 1: was so exactly the same thing that he'd always done
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  Speaker 1: before that the wits of the curious were fairly puzzled.
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  Speaker 1: Had he traveled, it was likely, for no one seemed
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  Speaker 1: to know the world more familiarly. There was no spot
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  Speaker 1: so secluded that he did not appear to have an
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  Speaker 1: intimate acquaintance with it. He often corrected with a few
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  Speaker 1: clear words the thousand conjectures advanced by members of the
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  Speaker 1: club as to lost and unheard of travelers, pointing out
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  Speaker 1: the true probabilities, and seeming as if gifted with a
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  Speaker 1: sort of second sight. So often did events justify his predictions.
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  Speaker 1: He must have traveled everywhere, at least in the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: It was at least certain that Phileas Fogg had not
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  Speaker 1: absented himself from London for many years. Those who were
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  Speaker 1: honored by a better acquaintance with him than the rest
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  Speaker 1: declared that nobody could pretend to have ever seen him
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  Speaker 1: anywhere else. His soul pastimes were reading the papers and
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  Speaker 1: playing whisked. He often wanted this game, which, as a
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  Speaker 1: silent one, harmonized with his nature, but his winnings never
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  Speaker 1: went into his purse, being reserved as a fund for
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  Speaker 1: his charities. Mister Fogg played not to win, but for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of playing. The game was, in his eyes
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  Speaker 1: a contest, a struggle with a difficulty, yet a motionless,
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  Speaker 1: unwearying struggle congenial to his tastes. Phileas Fogg was not
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  Speaker 1: known to have either wife or children, which may happen
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  Speaker 1: to the most honest people, either relatives or near friends,
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  Speaker 1: which is certainly more unusual. He lived alone in his
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  Speaker 1: house in Saville Road, whither none penetrated a single domestic
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  Speaker 1: sufficed to serve him. He breakfasted and dined at the
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  Speaker 1: club at hours mathematically fixed in the same room at
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  Speaker 1: the same table, never taking his meals with other members,
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  Speaker 1: much less bringing a guest with him. And went home
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  Speaker 1: at exactly midnight, only retire at once to bed. He
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  Speaker 1: never used the cozy chambers which the Reform provides for
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  Speaker 1: its favored members. He passed ten hours out of the
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  Speaker 1: twenty four in Savile row, either in sleeping or making
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  Speaker 1: his toilet. When he chose to take a walk, it
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  Speaker 1: was with a regular step in the entrance hall, with
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  Speaker 1: its mosaic flooring, or in the circular gallery, with its
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  Speaker 1: domes supported by twenty red porphyri ionic columns and illumined
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  Speaker 1: by blue painted windows. When he breakfasted or dined, all
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  Speaker 1: the resources of the club, its kitchens and pantries, its
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  Speaker 1: buttery and dairy, added to crowd his table with their
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  Speaker 1: most succulent stores. He was served by the gravest waiters,
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  Speaker 1: in dress coats and shoes with swan skin soles, who
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  Speaker 1: proffered the viands in special porcelain and on the finest linen.
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  Speaker 1: Club decanters of a lost mold contained his sherry, his port,
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  Speaker 1: and his cinnamon spiced claret, while his beverages were refreshingly
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  Speaker 1: cooled with ice brought it great cost from the American lakes.
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  Speaker 1: If to live in this style is to be eccentric.
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  Speaker 1: It must be confessed that there is something good in eccentricity.
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  Speaker 1: The mansion in saville Row, though not sumptuous, was exceedingly comfortable.
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  Speaker 1: The habits of its occupant were such as to demand
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  Speaker 1: but little from the soul domestic, but Phileas Fogg required
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  Speaker 1: him to be almost superhumanly prompt and regular. On this
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  Speaker 1: very second of Ice October, he had dismissed James Forster
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  Speaker 1: because that luckless youth had brought him shaving water at
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  Speaker 1: eighty four degrees fahrenheit instead of eighty six. And he
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  Speaker 1: was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house
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  Speaker 1: between eleven and half past. Phileas Fogg was seated squarely
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  Speaker 1: in his arm chair, his feet close together like those
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  Speaker 1: of a grenadier on parade, his hands resting on his knees,
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  Speaker 1: his body straight, his head erect. He was steadily watching
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  Speaker 1: a complicated clock which indicated the hours, the minutes, the seconds,
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  Speaker 1: the days, the months and the years. At exactly half
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  Speaker 1: past eleven, mister Fogg would, according to his daily habit,
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  Speaker 1: quit savle Row and repair to the reform. A rap
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  Speaker 1: at this moment sounded on the door of the cozy apartment,
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  Speaker 1: where Phileas Fogg was seated and James Forster, the dismissed servant, appeared.
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  Speaker 1: He's a new servant, said he, a young man of
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  Speaker 1: thirty advanced and bowed. You are a Frenchman, I believe,
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  Speaker 1: asked Phileas Fogg. And your name is John Jean, if
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur pleases, replied the newcomer, Jean passepartout and surname which
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  Speaker 1: has clung to me because I have a natural aptness
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  Speaker 1: for going out of one business into another. I believe
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  Speaker 1: I'm honest, monsieur, But to be outspoken, I've had several trades.
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  Speaker 1: I've been an itinerant, singer, a circus rider when I
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  Speaker 1: used to vault like leotard and dance on a rope
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  Speaker 1: like blondin. Then I got to be a professor of
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  Speaker 1: gymnastics so as to make better use of my talents.
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  Speaker 1: And then there was a sergeant Fiderman at Paris and
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  Speaker 1: assisted it many a big fire. But I quitted Franz
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  Speaker 1: five years ago, and, wishing to taste the sweets of
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  Speaker 1: domestic Lifefe took service as a valet here in England,
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  Speaker 1: finding myself out of place and hearing that Monsieur Phileas
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  Speaker 1: Fogg was the most exact and settled gentleman in the
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  Speaker 1: United Kingdom. I have come to Monsieur in the hope
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  Speaker 1: of living with him a tranquil life and forgetting even
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  Speaker 1: the name of passe Partout. Pass Partout suits me, responded
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  Speaker 1: mister Fogg, you are well recommended to me. I hear
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  Speaker 1: a good report of you. You know my conditions, yes,
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  Speaker 1: messieur good. What time is it? Twenty two minutes after eleven,
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  Speaker 1: returned Passepartout, drawing an enormous silver watch from the depths
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  Speaker 1: of his pocket. You are too slow, said mister Fogg.
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  Speaker 1: Pardon me, monsieur, it is impossible. You are four minutes
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  Speaker 1: too slow. No matter, It's enough to mention the error
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  Speaker 1: now from this moment twenty nine minutes after eleven a m.
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  Speaker 1: This Wednesday, second October, you are in my service. Phileas
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  Speaker 1: Fogg got up, took his hat in his left hand,
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  Speaker 1: put it on his head with an automatic motion, and
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  Speaker 1: went off without a word. Passepartout heard the street door
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  Speaker 1: shut once. It was his new master going out. He
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  Speaker 1: heard it shut again. It was his predecessor, James Forster,
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  Speaker 1: departing in his turn. Passepartout remained alone in the house
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  Speaker 1: in savile row. End of chapter