Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Twelve to Fourteen

In which Phileas Fogg and his companions venture through the forests of India, and what follows; Passepartout proves again that Fortune smiles upon the bold; Phileas Fogg descends the entire splendid valley of the Ganges without ever thinking of looking at it; and in which the narrator wonders about the cultural accuracy of the novel, is thankful for the first female character in the book, and eagerly awaits her achieving the power of speech.



And so, we pass through most of India and our first real adventure with our heroes, we say goodbye to the good Sir Francis Cromarty, and greet our new major character, Mrs. Auoda. Let's see the visuals!

1:48 - "He laughed in the midst of his somersaults."

In this area, we run into a couple of perhaps unfamiliar but fairly prosaic words: "syenite" at 2:41, which (as you can pretty much tell from context) is a kind of rock; "betel" at 5:44, which is a kind of plant possibly used for dye at some point I guess; and "damascened" at 7:01, which means metalwork inlaid or etched with wavy patterns, related to damask where similar patterns are made in cloth, and both of which derive their name from the ancient city of Damascus. 

9:56 - "But this unfortunate did not seem to make any resistance."

14:41 - "The guards of the rajah, lighted by smoky torches..."

19:18 - "A cry of terror arose."

So around the 25:00 mark, we launch into this rather lengthy passage where the poet-king Ucaf Uddaul describes all the physical charms of a very lovely queen. Thing is, it seems that this "Ucaf Uddaul" is completely made up. I think Verne put this in so that he could get away with passages like "the wealth of her bosom, where youth in its prime displays its most perfect treasures," because... boobs, right? He's talking about boobs?

Oh, also, "Ucaf Uddaul" at 25:49 refers to the immortal sculptor Vicvarcarma, which I'm pretty sure means Vishvakarman, the Hindu deity of craftsmen and architects. Man, some of these archaic names, translated into French and then translated into English....

27:28 - "Passepartout, not at all frightened..."

30:51 - "Bands of Hindus of both sexes"

Anyway, I'm sure it's all clear sailing from here on out!


If you would like to read along, I unfortunately can't find my translation by Stephen W. White online, but the George Towele translation can be found at Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection, which is also where I got the illustrations, or the more accurate but rather fusty Henry Frith translation at Project Gutenberg. No reading ahead, though!