World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Around the World in Eighty Days
八十天环游地球
Around the World in Eighty Days (八十天环游地球, Bāshí tiān huányóu dìqiú) is a classic by Jules Verne, retold in simple Mandarin as an 8-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 3 (Intermediate).
Retold from Jules Verne's classic novel: a calm gentleman, his excitable servant and a suspicious detective race around the world in eighty days for a wager.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — A warm storyteller who sets each scene.
- Phileas Fogg · 福格 — A calm, exact English gentleman who never hurries and never jokes.
- Passepartout · 路路通 — Fogg's cheerful, talkative servant, always ready with a joke or a panic.
- Detective Fix · 费克斯 — A sly detective who is sure Fogg is the bank thief and follows him around the world.
- Aouda · 艾达 — A brave, gentle young woman rescued in India who becomes Fogg's companion.
- Mr. Stuart · 斯图尔特 — A club member who cannot believe Fogg's bet.
- The Guide · 向导 — The Indian guide who sells the elephant and leads the travelers through the forest.
- The Pilot-Boat Captain · 船长 — A rough, cheerful sailor whose little boat races through a storm.
- Captain Speedy · 斯皮迪 — The stubborn captain whose ship Fogg buys in New York.
- The Crowd · 人们 — The frightened villagers who run when the king seems to come back.
- Troupe Leader · 团长 — The loud leader of the Yokohama acrobat troupe.
- Train Conductor · 列车员 — The nervous conductor of the American train.
8 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Bet
一个打赌
A calm gentleman bets his club friends he can circle the globe in eighty days. His new servant learns the trip starts in ten minutes.
Free to read
Chapter 2: The Man at Suez
苏伊士的朋友
At Suez a friendly stranger asks Passepartout a lot of questions about his master. He is a detective, and he thinks he has found the bank thief.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 3: The Elephant
一头大象
The railway in India ends in the middle of the forest, so Fogg buys an elephant. Then a strange, sad procession appears in the trees.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 4: The Rescue
救艾达夫人
Before dawn Passepartout risks everything on a daring trick to save a young woman. The travelers race to the coast with a new companion.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 5: Hong Kong and Shanghai
香港和上海
In Hong Kong the ship leaves without Passepartout, and Fogg must cross a stormy sea in a tiny boat to catch up in Shanghai.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 6: The Acrobat in Yokohama
横滨的大鼻子
Alone in Japan with no money, Passepartout joins a troupe of acrobats. Then he spots his master in the audience, mid-tumble.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 7: The American Railroad
美国的火车
Buffalo, raiders and a wind-driven sledge stand between the travelers and New York. Then the ship they need sails without them.
SayMei Stories
Chapter 8: Five Minutes Late
晚了五分钟
Burning even the ship's wood, Fogg races home to London. Fix has one last surprise, and so does the calendar.
SayMei Stories
Key words in Around the World in Eighty Days
Behind the story
Around the World in Eighty Days was written by the French author Jules Verne (凡尔纳) and printed in a newspaper in 1872. Readers followed Phileas Fogg's race chapter by chapter, and newspapers even guessed whether he would make it. Chinese readers know the book as 八十天环游地球.
Verne's adventure novels reached China more than a century ago. In 1903 the great writer Lu Xun (鲁迅) translated one of them, 月界旅行, and helped make science and adventure stories popular. In this retelling, Fogg's route passes through Hong Kong and Shanghai, two busy Chinese ports of the nineteenth century.
Did you know?
- The Suez Canal opened in 1869, only three years before the book was written. It cut weeks off the trip from Europe to Asia, and it is why Fogg's plan seemed possible at all.
- Fogg's twist ending is real science: a traveler going east gains time on the clock and, without knowing it, gains a whole calendar day. Today the International Date Line keeps that count straight.
- Jules Verne wrote about faraway places, but he traveled far less than his heroes did. He built his adventures from maps, newspapers and travel books.