Eighty Days – Day 23

Welcome back to the blog-tour commemorating Phileas Fogg’s trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. The one-day train ride from Allahabad to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) went well.

Calcutta (Kolkata) Harbor in 1872

Along the way, the train stopped at Benares, where Sir Francis Cromarty departed the group. At 7:00 am on the 25th, the train pulled in the station in Calcutta, giving them 5 hours until the steamer would leave at noon. Fogg and Passepartout had covered 7325 miles, about 29.8% of the total distance, and they’d consumed 28.8% of the time.

Princess Aouda had recovered from her drugged state, surprised to be in the company of strangers, her rescuers. When told a relative of hers resided in Hong Kong, Fogg decided to convey her there.

A policeman arrived, ordering Fogg and Passepartout to accompany him. He escorted them to the office of a judge. Three Brahmin priests accused them, not of interfering with a suttee ceremony in Pillaji, as they thought, but of desecrating a temple in Bombay by wearing shoes inside (see my Day 18 entry).

The judge imposed a sentence of 300 pounds and 15 days imprisonment for Passepartout, and 150 pounds and 1 week in prison for Phileas Fogg. Watching from a hidden corner, Detective Fix rubbed his hands in delight since the warrant for Fogg’s arrest as a bank robber had not yet reached Calcutta, but would likely do so in that time.

Detective Fix might have wanted to accuse Phileas Fogg of theft, but you can get my new ebook, 80 Hours, for a steal at only $2.99. What are they thinking at Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, and Tolino anyway?

Back to Verne’s story. Unperturbed, Fogg stated his willingness to pay bail. Without batting an eye, he handed over 2000 pounds bail money and the judge released them both. Passepartout even got his shoes back. 

At the time of the story, Calcutta’s population had reached 633,000. Low-lying areas of the city had suffered terrible losses in the cyclones of 1864, 1867, and 1870. In 2022, Kolkata boasts a population over 7 times that number—4.5 million.

Today, if you travel from Allahabad to Kolkata, you don’t need a full day, as Fogg did. An airline flight takes as little as five or six hours, though you may have to stop in Raipur or Gorakhpur on the way.

For this blogpost series, you can’t fly. Like Fogg, you must board the steamer Rangoon. Fogg estimated the travel time to Hong Kong as ten to twelve days, so look for the next entry on November 4 (good weather) or 6 (bad weather).

Kindly watch your step on the gangway, along with Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, Fix, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 25, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 22

Thank you for joining me on my global blog tour. We’re following the route taken by Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after its publication.

Since leaving Mumbai (called Bombay in those days) we’ve reached Allahabad. Much has happened since then, so let’s catch up with the action.

On the train, Fogg met Sir Francis Cromarty who, besides being countryman and a whist player, knew India well and became Fogg’s traveling companion. At 8:00 pm on October 21, the train stopped beyond Rothal near Kholby. (Don’t bother looking for place names on the map. I’ll explain later.) Track had not yet been laid down between there and Allahabad. Determined to forge ahead, Fogg bought an elephant and the services of a guide.

They rode the elephant past the village of Kallenger on the Cani River. Witnessing a procession of Brahmins, they found out a young princess named Aouda was to be put to death. Her husband, the rajah, died, and the practice of suttee (or sati) demanded her sacrifice, which would occur in the village of Pillaji.

Aghast, Fogg decided to try to save her, and it’s Passepartout who actually did. Along with Aouda, the group arrived in Allahabad. No longer 2 days ahead of schedule, he had then traveled 6835 miles, covering 27.8% of the distance in 27.5% of the time.

Verne had stayed true to geographical facts up to this point. However, as noted in Nicholas Whyte’s informative website, the villages of Rothal, Kholby, Kallenger, or Pillaji never existed. Nor is there a Cani River. It appears Verne made them up.

Why might he have done that? He must have had access to a route map of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, which included accurate village and river names. However, he intended to describe specific places in negative terms (failure to complete railroad lines, practicing suttee), so may have made up fictional names for that area to avoid lawsuits.

By the way, suttee/sati was banned in British India since the 1840s, and has been illegal in modern India since 1987. However, some widows even in the last twenty years have voluntarily committed suicide on their husband’s funeral pyres.

At the time of the novel, Allahabad’s population numbered about 144,000. Today, it’s over 10 times that, 1.54 million. Modern travelers don’t need 4 days to get from Mumbai to Allahabad. Without elephants or princesses, you can take a 2-hour flight between those cities.

I, for one, am glad Aouda joined us on our trip now. It’s about time this journey included a woman. Speaking of that, a female protagonist stars in my new ebook, 80 Hours. You may purchase it at Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, and Scribd.

Our traveling party is cutting it close. We’re due in Kolkata tomorrow to make the steamer. Will we make it? That answer is known only to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 24, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 18

It’s time to continue our around-the-world blog tour. We’re following the route of Phileas Fogg, 150 years to the day after his famous fictional trip. The steamship Mongolia sailed from Suez and reached Mumbai (known in Verne’s time as Bombay) at 4:30 pm today, October 20.

Fogg had traversed 6004 miles, or 24.5% of the distance in only 22.5% of his allotted time. About 2 days ahead of schedule, he seemed in good shape to win his wager. In 3 ½ hours, he had to catch his train to Kolkata (then spelled Calcutta) leaving at 8:00 pm.

He sent Passepartout out to purchase shoes and shirts, while he walked to the passport office for official proof of his arrival. Meanwhile, Detective Fix headed to the ‘Bombay’ police hoping the warrant arrived for Fogg’s arrest. It hadn’t.

His shopping completed, Passepartout got distracted and curious, and wandered into a Hindu pagoda at Malabar Hill without taking his shoes off. He escaped three Brahmin priests who chased after him and he almost missed the train.

In the time of the novel, 644,000 people called Bombay home and Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse served as the Crown Governor of the ‘Bombay Presidency’ when England ruled the various pieces of the subcontinent. Today, the population surpasses 20.4 million, the President of India is Droupadi Murmu, the Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

As for Malabar Hill, where Passepartout committed his sacrilegious act, that site contained several temples and some mansions for the wealthy at the time. Even more exclusive today, Malabar Hill counts among the top ten most expensive areas in the world.

Some of you may wonder when I’ll get to the novel’s balloon trip. I won’t, because there wasn’t one. Pressed for time, Fogg would never have considered a balloon. They move too slowly, and often in unintended directions. Every movie adapted from the novel features a balloon, but you won’t find one in the book. Read Five Weeks in a Balloon or The Mysterious Island if you want balloons from Verne.

Traveling from Suez to Mumbai today doesn’t require the 11 days Fogg needed. The drive to Cairo takes less than 2 hours and you can fly from there to Mumbai in about 9 hours, with a stop in either Muscat or Dubai.

That reduction in time from 11 days to 11 hours reminds me—you can grab my ebook, 80 Hours, at Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Rakuten Kobo. It’s a modern adaptation of Verne’s novel.

The train whistle just blew at the Mumbai railroad station. Better get aboard. The steamer will leave from Kolkata in five days and we can’t miss it. (There may be a plot development four days from now.) Who’s we, you ask? None other than Fogg, Passepartout, Detective Fix (who hopped aboard to follow Fogg), as well as you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 20, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 7

Welcome back to my globe-trotting blog tour. We’re tracing the fictional path of Phileas Fogg as he raced Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years later. On this date, at 11 am local time, Fogg and his servant reached the city of Suez aboard the steamship Mongolia.

The ship would stay there just four hours to refuel with coal and then cast off to steam toward Bombay. That furnished enough time for Fogg to obtain a visa from the British Consul. He didn’t need the visa to pass through Egypt, but wanted official evidence he’d reached Suez. He’d traveled 2522 miles since leaving London, about 10.3% of the planned distance, but only taken 8.8% of the allotted 80 days.

For Verne’s plot, the refueling stop allowed Detective Fix to see Fogg for the first time, to gain valuable information from Passepartout about Fogg’s intentions, and to firm up his suspicions about Fogg robbing the Bank of England.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

Suez sits at the junction of Africa and Asia, near the southern end of the then-new Suez Canal, completed in 1869. Verne seemed proud of the accomplishment of his countryman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who masterminded the construction of the canal. Lesseps also gets a mention in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

In 1872, Egypt existed as an Ottoman province, known as the Khedivate of Egypt. Isma’il Pasha ruled as the Khedive.

Much has changed in 150 years. They widened the canal to double its capacity. It’s endured wars, the planting and removal of mines, and blockage by a ship running aground.

Long past being a Khedivate, Egypt became a republic with a president, currently Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and a prime minister, currently Moustafa Madbouly.

Today’s traveler needs far less than 4 days to transit from Brindisi to Suez. You can ride by car to Bari, take a flight to Cairo via Istanbul, then hop a bus to Suez, all in 11 ½ hours.

I’ve been pushing my new book, 80 Hours. However, that’s not the only Verne-related piece I’ve written or been associated with. My story “The Steam Elephant” in The Gallery of Curiosities #3 forms an African sequel to Verne’s The Steam House. Think of “A Tale More True” as a clockwork version of Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. “Rallying Cry” celebrates two Verne novels—The Steam House and Clipper of the Clouds. “The Cometeers” follows From the Earth to the Moon as a sort of sequel. I co-edited the anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered, with its obvious Verne connection. I also co-edited an upcoming anthology by the North American Jules Verne Society called Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. Look for news about that here.

If all goes well on our steamship ride, we should reach Bombay (now Mumbai) on October 20, the next entry in this blog trip. Detective Fix may embark aboard the Mongolia as well, along with Fogg, Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 9, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 3

We’re continuing our blog-trip Around the World in Eighty Days, 150 years after its publication. Today, we’re in Brindisi after riding with Phileas Fogg and Passepartout by train from Turin.

We’ve covered 1420 miles to this point, already 5.8% of the total planned distance. Yet only 3.8% of our 80 days have elapsed. All looks well.

As with the earlier cities on the tour, Verne neglected to describe Brindisi. Perhaps he could count on his French readers being familiar with it. 

Brindisi sits at the high heel of the Italian boot, near the joining of the Adriatic Sea with the Mediterranean. In 1872, 13,800 people lived there. Only two years before, the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) added Brindisi to its route, coinciding with the opening of the Brindisi Marittima railway station.

After leaving the train station, Fogg and his servant would have taken a carriage to the port to board the steamship Mongolia. That ship would take them through the Suez Canal to Bombay (now Mumbai). No fictional creation of Verne, the Mongolia existed. Built in 1865, it displaced almost 3000 tons and, according to Verne, its engines produced 500 horsepower.

The Mongolia got scrapped in 1888, but P&O later built two more ships by that name.

If you visit Brindisi now, you’ll find it’s home to 87,000 people. That Brindisi Marittima railway station closed in 2006, replaced by a car park.

Brindisi Harbor

Getting from Turin to Brindisi today doesn’t require a train ride of 32 hours and 40 minutes, like Fogg had to endure. Just hop a 3 ½ hour flight, which includes a 1-hour layover in Rome.

If you’re wondering what it would be like to fly around the world today, stopping at the major cities of Phileas Fogg’s route, I recommend the book 80 Hours. It’s sold at Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble.

The voyage to Suez will take four days, so look for the next post in this series on October 9. They’re about to remove the gangway on the Mongolia. Fogg and Passepartout are already aboard, waiting for you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 5, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 2

Buon giorno, faithful readers and fellow blog travelers. We’ve reached Turin on our voyage Around the World in Eighty Days with Phileas Fogg and his servant, Passepartout. We’re commemorating their famous fictional trip of 150 years ago.

Mont Cenis Pass train

The book states Fogg and his party reached Turin “by Mont Cenis” on Friday, October 4, 1872, at 6:35 am. The Mont Cenis part seems unlikely. A railway had been operating there since 1868, but it closed in 1871 after the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. That tunnel proved a much better connection between France and Italy through the Alps. I’m guessing Verne wrote the novel a year or so ahead of when it appeared in print.

Fréjus Rail Tunnel

In any case, Fogg must have felt gratified, in his stoic way, to have traveled 736 miles since leaving London. That put him 3% of his way around the world in just 2.5% of the time. Good to be ahead of schedule so early in the trip.

Turin, in 1872, held a population of 208,000 and had served as the capital of Italy up until 11 years earlier. King Victor Emmanuel II then sat on the throne of the newly united Kingdom of Italy.

Turin today

In 2022, Turin’s population numbers 900,000. Sergio Mattarella serves as President of the country, and Mario Draghi is the Prime Minister.

Today’s traveler wouldn’t need 22 hours, as Fogg did, to reach Turin from Paris. You can fly between the two airports in about an hour and a half.

Speaking of flying, you might consider buying a copy of my book 80 Hours, a fictional tribute to Verne’s story.  You can get the ebook from Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, Amazon, and Apple Books.

Tomorrow, we’re due in Brindisi. So far, all is going well for our party—Fogg, Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 4, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 1

Welcome to Paris! Today we’re continuing our trip Around the World in Eighty Days, following the fictional route taken by Phileas Fogg 150 years ago. I hope you remembered to turn off the heat in your room back in London. Passepartout forgot that.

He and Fogg left London the night before, took a train to Dover, a steamship to Calais, and a train to the French capital. Jules Verne spent few words describing this leg of the journey. Little wonder, since his readers knew this portion of the route well. Verne focused on character development here and introduced a major subplot, the pursuit of a bank robber by Detective Fix of Scotland Yard.

Passepartout regretted not spending more time in Paris, capital of his native country. He and Fogg rode in a carriage through the rain for an hour and forty minutes between two train stations.

At this point, Fogg had traversed some 294 miles, about 1.2% of the total distance, and he’d consumed 1.3% of his allotted time. On schedule with no mishaps or delays. The day before, when making the bet, he’d asserted, “The unforeseen does not exist.” So far, that had proved true.

“The Train” Claude Monet, 1872

In 1872, the population of Paris (minus outlying areas) numbered about 1.8 million. Adolphe Thiers served as the President of France, with Jules Armand Dufaure as President of the Council of Ministers.

Today, Paris claims a citizenry of 2.2 million. Emmanuel Macron is the President of the Republic, and the Prime Minister is Élisabeth Borne.

Had Fogg waited 150 years, he could have caught a flight directly from London to Paris with a flying time of one hour and twenty minutes. Truly, that unforeseen did not exist.

Trains, too, have changed. They no longer belch smoke like the one in Claude Monet’s 1872 painting, “The Train.” A traveler today can go by rail from London to Paris, through the Chunnel, in about two and a half hours.

If you’re enjoying this blog voyage, perhaps you’d like my latest story, 80 Hours, inspired by Verne’s tale, but updated to modern times. It’s available as an ebook from Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Scribd, Tolino, Vivlio, and Amazon.

All aboard! Next stop—Turin. We should arrive there tomorrow, according to your conductor—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 3, 2022Permalink

Eighty Days – Day 0

150 years ago today, Phileas Fogg made his famous fictional wager and started his journey Around the World in Eighty Days. To commemorate the anniversary, let’s travel along with him for the next eighty days and find out how the world he circled has changed.

The Reform Club, as it looked then

He made his bet and started his trip at the Reform Club. Jules Verne didn’t invent that club—it had existed for thirty-six years. A gentlemen’s club originally devoted to promoting the passage of the Reform Act of 1836, it conducted business in a building on Pall Mall Street in central London.

The Reform Club today

The club still exists today, but with some changes. Once political, it’s now mostly social. Once all-male, it admitted women in 1981.

In 1872, greater London boasted a population of 3.9 million. Queen Victoria sat on the throne of England, and William Ewart Gladstone of the Liberal Party served as Prime Minister. The 20th Parliament performed legislative duties.     

In October 2022, greater London’s population numbers 8.8 million. The monarch is King Charles III, and the Prime Minister is Liz Truss of the Conservative Party. They’re up to the 58th Parliament now.

The date of October 2 fell on a Wednesday in 1872. Fogg set a departure time of 8:45 pm, since he planned to take the train to Dover leaving at that time.

In 2022, the second day of October falls on a Sunday. Trains still run from London to Dover, and the trip takes less than two hours. You could also drive by car, rideshare with others, take a bus, or fly. Fogg lacked all of those latter options. 

In related news, I’m launching a new book today. Called 80 Hours, it’s a modern take on the Verne classic. You can buy it in ebook form at Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Tolino, and Vivlio.

Let’s agree to meet in Paris tomorrow, just Phileas Fogg, his servant Passepartout, you, and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

October 2, 2022Permalink

NASA’s DART Mission is 125 Years Too Late

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) succeeded in impacting a probe on the asteroid Dimorphos in an attempt to redirect the path of that body.

You’re late to the party, NASA. It’s been done already. Over a century ago.

As chronicled in The Cometeers, an international team already attempted to redirect an Earthbound comet.

In 1897.

When Comet Göker threatened to strike our planet in September of that year, there were no rockets, no nuclear weapons. They fired projectiles from the Jules Verne cannon and tried to deflect the comet with a gunpowder explosion. Commander Hanno Knighthead struggled to motivate his argumentative, multinational crew of eccentric geniuses to work together.

Then he learned the crew included a saboteur. Only a truly extraordinary leader could get this group to cooperate, identify and thwart the spy, and jury-rig a way to divert the comet. Lucky thing Hanno brought his chewing gum.

Good work, NASA. DART struck its target. But let’s not call it new or innovative. The credit for saving the Earth from collision goes to The Cometeers, by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 27, 2022Permalink

80 Hours—Available for Pre-order

Next Sunday, October 2, 2022 marks 150 years to the day after Phileas Fogg began his trip Around the World in Eighty Days. I’ll celebrate this fictional event in two ways:

  1. My story “80 Hours,” will be available for purchase, though you can pre-order it now.
  2. I’ll begin a series of blogposts on the days when Fogg and his companions arrived in each city on their trip.

To Jules Verne’s reading audience in 1872, it must have seemed astounding to think someone could circle the globe in as little as eighty days. Today, we’re accustomed to the space station and manned spacecraft orbiting the earth in a little over eighty minutes.

For the rest of us non-astronauts, imagine facing the challenge of circumnavigating the earth in eighty hours with no preparation and with unknown, promised obstacles along the way. That’s the problem confronting shy and sheltered Wendy Pegram in “80 Hours.”

You may pre-order “80 Hours” in ebook form now at Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Tolino, and Vivlio. Starting next Sunday, you’ll be able to get the book at those sites, and at Amazon, Scribd, and Rakuten Kobo.

If you’ve been itching to make the trip around our globe, you can do it for real. Or (far cheaper) you can read your way around the world by two different methods, courtesy of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 25, 2022Permalink