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Re. questions (in footsteps of mr Fogg)

From: Tim Unwin <T.A.Unwin~at~bristol.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 14:52:34 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Verne himself gives some of the contemporary answers to this question in
_Claudius Bombarnac_ (1892) where a character called Baron
Weissschitzerdörfer [sic] has set out to complete a circuit of the globe in
thirty-nine days, vying with records of seventy-two days set by Nellie Bly
in 1889-90 and of seventy days set by George Francis Train (they are both
mentioned by name in the novel). It was a few years later that Nellie Bly
set a new record of sixty-six days, finding time during that circuit to
visit Verne himself in Amiens. There are a number of websites about both
Nellie Bly and George Francis Train: the easiest route is Google.

As for the hapless baron in the 1892 novel, he is always running out of time
and running after trains. At the end of the novel, we learn that he missed
two ships across the Pacific, ended up shipwrecked on a third, and finally
completed his circuit in 187 days. History doesn't record how many other
spectacular failures there may have been...

Tim Unwin
Received on Thu 03 Jun 2004 - 16:50:58 IDT

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