Phileas Fogg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Phileas Fogg is the main fictional character in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days.

[edit] Around the World in Eighty Days

Main article: Around the World in Eighty Days (book)

Accompanied by his manservant Passepartout he attempts to circumnavigate the late Victorian world in 80 days, or less, on a wager of £20,000 set by the Reform Club. He takes the wager and on that day leaves with Passepartout, vowing to return by 8.45 pm on Saturday 21 December 1872. Under suspicion of robbing the Bank of England, he is followed by a detective named Fix. Fogg has no idea about Fix's true intentions, yet he works with him throughout the last half of the book.

While in India he saves a widowed princess from a tribe of natives who wish to sacrifice her. Passepartout rescues her and she accompanies Fogg for the rest of his journey. She and Fogg eventually fall in love and marry at the end of the book. Fogg is arrested by Fix near the end of the book but he is quickly released.

He then believes he has lost his wager. However, he discovers, almost too late, that he has forgotten to adjust his timekeeping for having crossed the International Date Line and he wins his bet after all.

The character of Phileas Fogg was played by David Niven in the 1956 film adaptation of the book; by Pierce Brosnan in the 1989 television adaptation; by Steve Coogan in the 2004 film adaptation by The Walt Disney Company; and by Michael Praed in The Secret Adventures Of Jules Verne.

In Philip José Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, he is said to be Eridanean, a member of the (ostensibly) more benevolent of two extraterrestrial factions attempting to control the Earth. Fogg is a member of Farmer's Wold Newton family.

Phileas Fogg also appeared in the comic book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and was mentioned by name in its film adaptation.