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rbreade 's review for:
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne
It's as if Verne set himself the challenge of writing the flattest, least curious, least interesting protagonist in all of fiction. If so, in Phileas Fogg he may have succeeded. Fogg has no discernible interior life, no reaction to any of the fabulous places he visits during his circumnavigation, nothing. Maybe Verne is satirizing the stoic English gentleman type, in which case, well done.
Any interest in the plot is generated by Fogg's servant, Passpartout, and the detective, Fix, as they play a sort of cat and mouse game around the world. One other item of interest is the critical role Passpartout's watch--especially his refusal to reset it as they cross time zones--plays in the resolution of the story.
To end on a good note, here's a nice bit of writing by Verne in describing his main character:
Fogg, who was "not traveling, but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics."
That's a perfect description of Phileas Fogg.
Any interest in the plot is generated by Fogg's servant, Passpartout, and the detective, Fix, as they play a sort of cat and mouse game around the world. One other item of interest is the critical role Passpartout's watch--especially his refusal to reset it as they cross time zones--plays in the resolution of the story.
To end on a good note, here's a nice bit of writing by Verne in describing his main character:
Fogg, who was "not traveling, but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics."
That's a perfect description of Phileas Fogg.