Around the World in Eighty Days, Chapters Eighteen to Twenty

In which Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, and Fix each goes about his own business; Passepartout takes a little too lively interest in his master, and what follows; Fix comes in direct contact with Phileas Fogg; and in which our narrator rerecorded a full chapter after accidentally giving a new character the wrong nationality.



Uh oh, our heroes have been split up! What are the chances that they'll ever be able to find each other again, on this world-wide trek? Pretty good, probably.

3:39 - "He astonished the crew, and helped at everything with the agility of a monkey."

In the bay of Hong Kong, Verne mentions numerous types of boats, including junks, tankas, and sampans. Junks are probably what come to mind for most people when they think of "Chinese ships," as they're a type of sailing vessel that's been in use in China for nearly 2,000 years, and are still used today, to some degree. Sampans are probably the other type of Chinese boat people think of: the flat-bottomed boat, often propelled by a pole and maybe having a small shelter on board, mostly used in rivers. "Tankas," though used in the text to refer to boats, near as I can tell is actually a reference to the Tanka people, a Chinese ethnic group that traditionally lives on boats (more or less as outcasts.) Oh, and he also says that the flowers boats made the harbor look like "parterres," which are a formal sort of garden.

Our heroes are scheduled to get on board the Carnatic to sail from Hong Kong to Yokohama. The name presumably refers to the Carnatic region of southern India, though it's possible it could be referring to Carnatic music, a popular type of classical Indian music from that area.

At 9:26, Verne also mentions "macadamized streets," which I'm sad to say has nothing to do with macadamias. No, "macadam" was an early method of paving roads by using small stones mixed with some sort of binder. It was invented by (and named for) John Loudon McAdam around 1820, and was much cheaper and more effective than previous methods of road construction, which involved laying down thick rock foundations. His methods pretty much directly precede the asphalt roads we now have. Eventually, people started using tar as the binding agent, giving us a word that might be more familiar to us in modern times: tarmac.

10:19 - "Passepartout noticed a certain number of natives...."

17:49 - "'Listen,' said Fix, in an abrupt tone."

'Round abouts 18:33, Fix talks about the robbery that took place "the twenty-eighth of September, ultimo." "Ultimo" comes from a term from business correspondence, ultimo mense, which simply means "last month." Or he's saying the bank was robbed by a giant robot, which would also be cool.

25:15 - "'Your honor is looking for a boat?'"

Unlike the Carnatic, I'm unable to figure out what the name of the Tankadere might be referring to, though it sounds like it's probably in some way related to the Tanka people mentioned above. Any ideas?

30:07 - "'I regret having nothing better to offer you.'"

But what of poor Passepartout? We'll have to find out next time!


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!