Lanterna Rally

Author: Jules Verne

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2020-09-18

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

Mr. Phileas Fogg is a wealthy man living in London who is part of the Reform Club, an elite social organization. He has recently hired a new domestic servant, a Frenchman named Passepartout. While at the Reform Club, he makes a bet with the other club members that it is possible to go around the world by train and steamer in just eighty days, and that he himself can do it. Since 20,000 pounds are at stake, he fetches Passepartout and they head off right away to circumnavigate the globe. Waiting for Fogg at the Suez Canal, where he will take a steamer to Bombay, India, is a detective named Fix; apparently, Fogg has been accused of robbing the Bank of England. He follows Fogg and Passepartout on the steamer Mongolia to India, where he hopes to receive a warrant to arrest Fogg as the robber.The steamer arrives in Bombay two days ahead of schedule, but the arrest warrant has not yet arrived. While waiting for the train that will take them across India from Bombay to Calcutta, Passepartout wanders off into a Hindu temple, hoping to see some of the city's sights before they rush off again. He does not realize that because he is a Christian, he is forbidden to enter; in addition, he enters it with shoes on, which is also not allowed. He narrowly escapes the wrath of the priests and makes it to the train station in time. On the train, Fogg and Passepartout meet Sir Francis Cromarty, an Englishman who lives in India. Passepartout spends much time gazing out the window at the wild jungles of India. Suddenly, though, the train stops-apparently there is a 50-mile span of track that is not yet finished, and passengers must arrange their own transportation to the next point where they can board a train again.