Around the World in Eighty Days · Chapter
In which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout accept each other, the one as master, the other as man explained
Phileas Fogg, a wealthy and enigmatic member of the Reform Club, lives a meticulously ordered life at 7 Saville Row.
What happens
Phileas Fogg, a wealthy and enigmatic member of the Reform Club, lives a meticulously ordered life at 7 Saville Row. After dismissing his servant James Forster for a trivial error, he hires Jean Passepartout, a Frenchman with a varied past, who seeks a tranquil domestic life. Fogg corrects Passepartout's watch by four minutes and formally accepts him into service, then departs for the club.
Themes in this chapter
Order and Method
Fogg's life is governed by precise routines, from his mathematically fixed meal times to his dismissal of a servant for a two-degree error in shaving-water temperature.
Time and Punctuality
Punctuality is central: Fogg corrects Passepartout's watch by four minutes and sets the exact time of his employment, reflecting his obsession with time.
Characters to notice
- Phileas Fogg
Introduced as a wealthy, enigmatic, and punctilious member of the Reform Club, living at 7 Saville Row.
- Passepartout
Introduced as a Frenchman with a varied past, hired as Fogg's new servant after being recommended.
- James Forster
Mentioned as the dismissed servant who brought shaving-water at the wrong temperature.
Key passages
“He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world.”
Fogg was a prominent yet mysterious figure at the Reform Club, known only as a refined gentleman.
Establishes Fogg's enigmatic nature and social standing.
“His daily habits were quite open to observation; but whatever he did was so exactly the same thing that he had always done before, that the wits of the curious were fairly puzzled.”
Fogg's routine was so perfectly consistent that it baffled those who tried to understand him.
Highlights the theme of order and method.
“You are four minutes too slow. No matter; it's enough to mention the error. Now from this moment, twenty-nine minutes after eleven, a.m., this Wednesday, 2nd October, you are in my service.”
Fogg notes Passepartout's watch is four minutes slow and officially hires him at exactly 11:29 a.m. on October 2nd.
Demonstrates Fogg's obsession with punctuality and precision.