Phileas Fogg wagers half his fortune that he can circle the earth in eighty days, and leaves the Reform Club within the hour with a French servant and no luggage. Verne worked from the railway and steamship timetables that had just made such a journey possible, and the novel reads like a schedule under attack — elephants, a rescued widow, a detective with the wrong warrant. The trick it ends on is arithmetic, and readers who see it coming love the book no less. Its 91 original illustrations have been carefully restored and coloured for this edition.