Around the World in 80 Days, published originally as a newspaper serial in 1872 and released as a book the following year was well received in both formats. Its hero, Phileas Fogg, is a leisured but taciturn Londoner of such mathematically precise habits that he has fired his servant for bringing him shaving water two degrees too cold. Over a game of cards, Fogg wagers twenty thousand pounds that he can travel around the world in eighty days or less.

What follows is a headlong adventure full of trains, ships, elephants, and wind sledges, not to mention human sacrifice, duels, and Indian attacks. A successful combination of modern speed and period quaintness, Around the World in 80 Days has become a delightful, timeless, steam-driven classic.