Around the World in Eighty Days (AmazonClassics Edition) recap

Exacting London gentleman Phileas Fogg wagers his Reform Club companions that he can circle the world in eighty days and leaves at once with his new French servant, Passepartout. Detective Fix follows because he mistakes Fogg for a bank robber and repeatedly tries to delay him. Across India, Fogg interrupts his schedule to rescue Aouda from a forced death, and she joins the journey. Missed ships, storms, an opium den, a circus, a Sioux attack, and broken transport force Fogg to improvise while remaining outwardly calm. He reaches Liverpool only to be wrongly arrested, then arrives in London believing he is five minutes late. After Aouda proposes marriage, Passepartout discovers that eastward travel across the International Date Line has gained them a day. Fogg reaches the Reform Club just before the deadline and wins. He makes little money after expenses, but he and Aouda marry.

Phileas Fogg lives alone in London and organizes every day with exact precision. On the day he hires the Frenchman Passepartout as his new servant, a discussion at the Reform Club turns to a recent bank theft and the shrinking travel times made possible by modern railways and steamships. Fogg insists that the globe can now be circled in eighty days. When Andrew Stuart challenges him, Fogg wagers twenty thousand pounds and commits to return to the same room before the deadline. He goes home, tells the astonished Passepartout to pack, and leaves that evening with a large supply of cash. The journey immediately becomes public news, and suspicion also falls on Fogg because his sudden departure and appearance seem to match descriptions of the bank robber.

Fogg and Passepartout travel through Europe and reach Suez on schedule. Detective Fix, waiting there for news of the bank robber, becomes convinced that Fogg is the wanted man. Because no warrant has arrived, Fix questions Passepartout, encourages him to talk about the unexpected journey, and secretly follows the travelers aboard the steamer to India. Fogg remains absorbed in cards and timetable calculations, treating delays and early arrivals as entries in a ledger. Passepartout enjoys each new place but repeatedly learns that his employer has no interest in sightseeing. At Bombay, Passepartout enters a Hindu temple without understanding the restrictions and escapes after angering the priests. Fogg, unaware that this incident may follow them, boards the railway for Calcutta with Fix still close behind.

The railway across India ends unexpectedly before the advertised connection is complete. Fogg buys an elephant and hires a Parsee guide, traveling through the forest with Passepartout and Sir Francis Cromarty. They encounter a procession taking Aouda, a young widow, to be killed on her husband's funeral pyre. Fogg decides that the schedule allows time for a rescue. After an attempted nighttime approach fails, Passepartout hides near the corpse and, during the ceremony, impersonates the dead rajah rising from the pyre. He carries Aouda away amid the crowd's panic. The party reaches the railway and continues to Calcutta. There Fogg and Passepartout are arrested over Passepartout's temple intrusion, but Fogg pays bail rather than miss the ship. Aouda, now safe from immediate pursuit, joins them on the voyage toward Hong Kong.

On the voyage east, Aouda recovers and learns how much Fogg risked to save her. The relative she hoped to join in Hong Kong has moved away, so Fogg offers to take her onward. A delay threatens the connection to Yokohama, while Fix still lacks the warrant that would let him arrest Fogg in British territory. Fix finally tells Passepartout that he is a detective, but the servant assumes he is an agent hired by the Reform Club to monitor the wager. Determined to keep Passepartout from warning Fogg about a ship's changed departure time, Fix gets him intoxicated and drugged in an opium den. Fogg and Aouda miss the ship and Passepartout disappears. Fogg hires pilot John Bunsby and the Tankadere to make a dangerous run toward Shanghai, taking Aouda and Fix aboard while neither man reveals the true nature of their opposition.

The Tankadere survives severe weather and reaches the route to Yokohama in time for Fogg, Aouda, and Fix to catch onward transport. Passepartout, meanwhile, woke aboard the earlier ship and reached Yokohama alone and penniless. He finds work in an acrobatic troupe, only for Fogg to spot him during the performance. Reunited, the party sails across the Pacific to San Francisco. Fix can no longer arrest Fogg outside British territory and decides to help him return quickly, planning to act once they reach England. In San Francisco, Fogg clashes with Colonel Stamp Proctor during a disorderly political meeting. The travelers then board the transcontinental railway. The train crosses difficult western country, and Passepartout attends a Mormon lecture while worrying about the timetable and the possibility of another encounter with Proctor.

The American rail journey grows increasingly dangerous. The train races over a failing bridge before the structure collapses, and Fogg's planned duel with Colonel Proctor is interrupted by a Sioux attack. Passepartout helps save the train but is captured. Rather than preserve his timetable, Fogg leads soldiers back to rescue him, returning successfully after the train has departed. A wind-powered sledge carries Fogg, Aouda, Passepartout, and Fix across the snowy plains to another railway connection. They hurry through Chicago to New York but arrive after the steamer for Liverpool has sailed. Fogg has sacrificed precious time for Passepartout and now faces the Atlantic without a scheduled passage capable of keeping the wager alive.

Fogg hires passage on Captain Speedy's Henrietta, nominally bound for Bordeaux, then takes control of the ship and redirects it toward Liverpool. When coal runs low, he buys the vessel and burns its wooden fittings as fuel, preserving enough speed to reach England. The moment they land at Liverpool, Fix arrests Fogg. The real bank robber has already been caught, but the mistake is corrected only after several crucial hours. Fogg strikes Fix and rushes to London by special train, arriving at the Reform Club five minutes beyond what he believes is the deadline. Convinced he has lost, he withdraws home with Aouda and Passepartout. His fortune is nearly exhausted, but Aouda proposes marriage and he accepts. While arranging the wedding, Passepartout discovers that their eastward circuit gained a calendar day at the International Date Line. Fogg races to the club and enters with seconds to spare, winning the wager. After costs he gains little money, but he marries Aouda and ends the journey happy.

Fogg reaches London believing he missed the Reform Club deadline by five minutes and has lost both his wager and most of his fortune. Aouda, unwilling to leave him in despair, proposes marriage, and Fogg accepts. When Passepartout visits a clergyman to arrange the ceremony, he discovers that the date is Saturday rather than Sunday. By traveling continuously eastward, the party crossed the International Date Line and gained a calendar day without recognizing it. Passepartout races home, and Fogg reaches the Reform Club with seconds remaining, winning the wager. His expenses leave him little financial profit, which he shares with Passepartout and Fix. His real gain is Aouda: they marry, and the journey ends with companionship replacing the rigid solitude of his former life.