Around the World in Eighty Days and the Depiction of Imperialism Rachel O'Dwyer College

French author Jules Verne, the third most translated author of all time, published his highly praised novel Around the World in 80 Days in the year 1873. Following his renowned novels which were published in previous years, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), this piece of work joined them as one of his best-known works. This creation and publication of this novel occurred entirely in the period of imperialism and the setting of the novel is also based in the 1870s. Throughout his travels, Phileas Fogg witnesses first hand the technological and scientific advances that the world was going through, particularly in relation to transport. While visiting other countries, he was also immersed in the reality of imperial power and what was happening in the world. “I see that it is by no means useless to travel if a man wants to see something new” (Verne, Jules, Chapter 9, Around the World in 80 days, 1873).

Imperialism is a movement that without a doubt, changed the world over a vast period of time. Around the sixteenth century, a time when what was called old imperialism occurred, people of the nations of Europe settled in North and South America and also Southeast Asia. However,...