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AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
Somehow, most of us think of a hot air balloon as the mode of transport for Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. In point of fact, a hot air balloon is about the only means of transportation not employed by Phileas Fogg in his epic journey (though it is given a fleeting thought by the hero at one point).
Jules Verne's creation of Philieas Fogg is central to the story. Fogg is obsessive about punctuality. So, when his whist partners at the Reform Club tell him there is no way to go around the globe in just 80 days, Fogg creates a detailed itinerary involving specific boats and trains promises to make it possible.
Phileas Fogg immediately bets half his fortune that he can do it, setting out on his journey that very night. Passepartout, his newly hired manservant, finds himself dragged along on this historic journey.
Add in Fogg being suspected of bank robbery, a detective tracking him every step of the way and the calamitous incidents created by Passepartout and you have the recipe for a tense, action story.
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