“‘Round the world!’ he murmured.
‘In eighty days,’ responded Mr. Fogg.”

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

Set in a time when the fastest ways to travel are steamers and locomotives, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne follows a London Gentleman by the name of Philias Fogg as he travels around the world to see if it is possible. Along the way, it describes the adventures and roadblocks that he comes to in his attempt to win the bet of 2000£.

Philias Fogg is a very exacting character. His only social involvement is a reform club. Every day, he eats all his meals there and gambles on whist. Philias is so exacting, his butler was fired for heating his shaving water 1 degree colder than the correct temperature, so being Philias’ butler was no easy task. However, a Frenchman applied for the job; he applied was because he didn’t like any changes or excitement. He wanted everything to be exactly the same each day. He was hired just before Philias went to the Reform Club that day. At the Reform Club, the discussion falls to a robbery that occurred in London lately. Philias and his whist partners wondered where the robber could hide, seeing as the robbery was known in many countries. One of the partners said that the world was big enough, but this was what Philias said: “It was, once”. This was because one could travel around the world so much faster. Philias ends up making a bet of 2000£ to see if he can make it around the world in 80 days. Philias makes a plan, and leaves that very afternoon with his new butler for the Suez Canal.

The book then switches perspectives to that of a detective, who was trying to find the robber Philias’ whist partners had spoken of. They were believed to have traveled south to Suez, where the detective, by the name of Fix, waits to try and find a man of the description of the robber. When Philias’ butler (whose name is Passepartout) gets off the steamer to have the passports visaed, Fix thinks Mr. Fogg matches the description of the robber. Fix decides to follow Fogg around the world. Mr. Fogg, Passepartout, and Fix set out on the same steamer, from Suez to Bombay (modern day Mumbai).

Upon their arrival, they go to the train that’s supposed to take them east to Calcutta. Passepartout wanders into an Indian temple where you are not allowed to wear shoes (with his shoes on), and nearly gets arrested. He, however, escapes, joining Mr. Fogg (and Fix) on the railroad. they travel until they reach the end of the line (about halfway to Calcutta) and Mr. Fogg has to buy an elephant to get to the next line. On the way, Fogg rescues an Indian lady (whose name is Aouda) who was about to be murdered. He takes her with him on the rest of the trip, so the party now consists of Philias Fogg, Passepartout, Detective Fix, and Aouda.

Their next stop is Hong Kong, where Fix attempts to get the priests who tried to arrest Passepartout in Bombay to arrest him and Fogg in Hong Kong. Fogg, however, bails himself and Passepartout out, and so the journey continues. They catch a steamer to San Francisco, where there is a riot, and Fogg gets in a fight with one of the protesters; Fogg doesn’t have time to stay and fight this out, so he says: “If I need to, I’ll come back to America for you [to fight this out]”. They got on the train to Omaha. Mr. Fogg and the man he had met in the protest at San Fransisco were on the same train, and they decide to fight it out on the rear car. They had everyone leave the car, and the two men fight until a tribe of Indians attack. On the moving train, Passepartout is only able to save the passengers by climbing underneath the cars and unhitching the locomotive (the driver and conductor had been knocked unconscious). The locomotive roars on, but the rest of the train slows to a stop. The passengers are able to fight off the Indians, but Passepartout and one other are missing. Next morning, at the next station, Fogg organizes a group of men to go searching for Passepartout and the other man. They find Passepartout, but it causes a delay in the schedule. The locomotive has left without Fogg and his party. Fix (who can’t arrest Fogg on American soil) decides to help Fogg make all speed to England. He hires a sledge with a sail (for it is wintertime) and they make 40 mph speed to Omaha, arriving in time to catch the train to Chicago.

From Chicago, they go to New York, and, while Fogg misses the steamer, he does hire a different ship. He finally makes it back to England. Fix immediately arrests Fogg. Fogg gets out, but a precious day is lost. Fogg gets back to London, but thinks he is a day late. Because he traveled around the world, he is actually a day early, and he wins the 2000£. He and Aouda decide to marry, and they all live happily ever after.

After reading this book, I found it to be moderately interesting. If you like stories of travel and close calls, this book might be for you. I would not recommend this to anyone below the age of 10, because it was written for a more mature audience.

It was 30 years after Amuba, Chebron, Mysa, Ruth, and Jethro had escaped to Rebu. Amense, Chebron and Mysa’s mother, had re-married and had one boy, Chefu after Chebron (ironically). He grew up and was 25 years old when he became the Egyptian ambassador to foreign countries. He would collect the tribute each year, going personally to each country and meeting with the king. Amenhotep didn’t really care about tribute and would not have waged war for it, but as long as it was easy to get, he would have someone else do it. One day, Chefu went to the court of Rebu for the first time to collect the tribute. There, he went before King Amuba and his royal adviser Chebron. There, when he told he was the son of Amense, the wife to the late High Priest, Chebron and Amuba told the whole story to Chefu. Chefu then agreed to call every time he came, and to bring tidings of Egypt. About two years after, it was 30 years since they had come to Rebu, and they were having the party they did every 10 years. A few days later, Chefu came. He would have been at the party, but there had been slight delays and he was a few days behind. He brought tidings that Amenhotep was trying to come get revenge upon the “slayer of the cat” and the “murderers of the high priest”. He also said that Amenhotep had been provoked by Ptylus’ grandson, now the high priest. Amuba invited Chefu to stay and live with them, but Chefu convinced Amuba to let him go back to Egypt and be a spy and set out a few days early, pretending to collect tribute from a different nation, but going to give warning to Amuba. So it was so. Now Jethro was too old to fight, be he had married and had a son, named Anitis, who became Amuba’s new general. In time, Chefu arrived, saying to rally the forces. This was done, and all waited for the time to strike. Amuba knew the tactics of the soldiers, and how they had done it before. He re-designed the walls in such a way that one could look over the edge and see the ground right up against the wall, and the soldiers could not burrow through without being detected. Long before, Amuba had dug a large ditch and filled it with water from the Caspian sea. Any vessel built could easily be disarmed by the spears of the Rebu, especially with a torch on the rear to light the boat on fire. After Thutmose had died, Egyptian soldiers had become much less well trained, and so, in open warfare, the stronger Rebu could have won. The drawbridge was lowered, and with one body of the army headed by Anitis in the woods, one by Chebron in the marsh, and one by Amuba in front of the city, Amenhotep arrived. While Amuba fought and killed Amenhotep in the thick of the battle, the two other forces closed in, and all the Egyptians were slew or else taken prisoner. The new king of Egypt, Amenhotep’s son, Thutmose IV did not care to meet the Rebu in battle, and Chefu lived with Amuba, and when Amuba and Chebron died without children, Chefu became king according to the will of Amuba. Chefu was a wise ruler and with Anitis as his general, peace and happiness were restored to the people of Rebu.

THE END

Here is a short summary of the first half of the book, The Cat of Bubastes, by G.A. Henty.

At the beginning of the book, we are told about a people called the Rebu. The Egyptians are going into battle against the Rebu. We are introduced to the son of the King of Rebu, and his name is Amuba, and also the king’s general, Jethro. In short, the Egyptians conquer the Rebu nation, killing the king in battle and taking Jethro and Amuba away as slaves to Thebes, which was then the capital of Egypt. However, it was farther away from the sea. Here is an map:

The Rebu nation was on the shore of the Caspian Sea, probably on the west side of the sea. The blue dot that is marked in Egypt is where the capital city of Thebes once was. So, being on foot and having to go around the tip of the red sea, that would have been a very long and tiresome journey.

Upon arriving at Thebes, Jethro and Amuba are put into the hands of the high priest of Osiris, who treats them really well, and the two slaves hardly ‘slave’ at all. The household consists of Ameres, the priest, his wife, Amese, their son Chebron who will be best friends with Amuba, and his younger sister Mysa, in addition to Jethro, Amuba, and several other servants and slaves and attendants. After this things settle down for a year. As is obvious, Amuba and Jethro had previously learned the language of the Egyptians, in this case on the way to Egypt. A little over a year later, they go to a canal project in Lower Egypt (to the north). There, they hunt several creatures, and also rescue a young Israelite from a crocodile. After that, they go home, the girl promising to come live with them and be Mysa’s companion once her old great-grandfather (her only guardian) dies. Chebron and the others then go back to Upper Egypt. Back home, Chebron is upgraded to the lower level of priesthood. He is given free range of the temple. One night, he and Amuba go there to explore. There is an open door that is not normally open, and they go up the stairs on the other side. They find themselves in one of the image’s heads and are able to look out the lip. Some priests are down below, conspiring. Chebron calls out something along the lines of “do not do this wicked thing!” and he and Amuba run, escaping over the temple wall via some ladders left by some workmen (the temple has no roof). Later it is learned that that night, Chebron’s older brother, Neco, who had previously moved out, is found to have been murdered. The book gives a brief description of the ceremonies for Neco’s funeral, and then it gets back to the main plot of the story. Mysa has been noticing that some of the water-foul are missing, so Chebron and Amuba go out to the garden to try and kill the hawk, for so they believed it was. When the hawk came, for so it proved to be, Amuba and Chebron fire their arrows. Now, all the pets of Mysa were in this garden, cats and all. One of Mysa’s cats had recently been chosen to be the successor to “the most sacred cat” who had recently died. Now, Amuba’s arrow hit its mark, killing the hawk. Chebron’s arrow hit a twig, and hit THE SPECIAL CAT! The cat died, and Chebron has now committed the worst crime in all Egypt.

As to what I think will happen after this point in the book, I think Chebron and Amuba will have to flee to some far off country, maybe Rebu itself, to escape from the death of Chebron.

In my next English essay, I will be writing a short(er) summary of the next half of the book as well as an event that occurred later in the lives of Amuba and Chebron. Thanks for reading!