# In which a conversation takes place which seems likely to cost Phileas Fogg dear explained — Around the World in Eighty Days

> Chapter companion for Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

## What happens

Phileas Fogg visits the Reform Club, where he learns of a bank robbery. During a game of whist, he argues that the world has grown smaller due to modern transportation and wagers £20,000 that he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. He plans to depart that very evening.

## Themes in this chapter

### Time and Punctuality

Fogg's precise calculation of the journey in hours and minutes, and his insistence on mathematical timing.

### Adventure and Exploration

The wager itself is a bold adventure to circumnavigate the globe in record time.

### Technology and Progress

Discussion of railways and steamships making the world 'smaller' and enabling the journey.

## Character check-ins

### Phileas Fogg

Proposes and accepts the wager to travel around the world in eighty days, remaining stoic throughout.

### Andrew Stuart

Argues against the feasibility of the journey and eventually accepts the wager.

### Gauthier Ralph

Discusses the bank robbery and supports the idea that the world has grown smaller.

### John Sullivan

Provides the estimated travel times from the Daily Telegraph.

### Samuel Fallentin

Participates in the whist game and the wager discussion.

### Thomas Flanagan

Inquires about the bank robbery and joins the whist game.

## Key lines

> The unforeseen does not exist

Unexpected events are not a factor in my planning.

_Fogg's belief in total control and preparation._

> A true Englishman doesn’t joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager

An Englishman is earnest about a bet.

_Fogg's serious attitude toward the wager._

> The world has grown smaller, since a man can now go round it ten times more quickly than a hundred years ago

Travel is so fast now that the world seems smaller.

_Ralph's comment on technological progress._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/around_the_world_in_eighty_days_se/chapters/iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/around_the_world_in_eighty_days_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/around_the_world_in_eighty_days_se/chapters