
Around the World in Seventy-Two Days - benbreen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_Seventy-Two_Days
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benj111
Id like a transcript of the conversation with Jules Verne.

How many authors get to see their fiction become reality like that.

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aaron695
Why not read chapter 4 of the book? Free link on wiki.

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falcor84
Thanks, it's an interesting read.

Here's the link to the book -
[http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html)

And here's the dialogue they had: """ "Has M. Verne ever been to America?" I
asked.

"Yes, once;" the answer came translated to me. "For a few days only, during
which time I saw Niagara. I have always longed to return, but the state of my
health prevents my taking any long journeys. I try to keep a knowledge of
everything that is going on in America and greatly appreciate the hundreds of
letters I receive yearly from Americans who read my books. There is one man in
California who has been writing to me for years. He writes all the news about
his family and home and country as if I were a friend and yet we have never
met. He has urged me to come to America as his guest. I know of nothing that I
long to do more than to see your land from New York to San Francisco."

"How did you get the idea for your novel, 'Around the World in Eighty Days?'"
I asked.

"I got it from a newspaper," was his reply. "I took up a copy of Le Siécle one
morning, and found in it a discussion and some calculations showing that the
journey around the world might be done in eighty days. The idea pleased me,
and while thinking it over it struck me that in their calculations they had
not called into account the difference in the meridians and I thought what a
denouement such a thing would make in a novel, so I went to work to write one.
Had it not been for the denouement I don't think that I should ever have
written the book."

"I used to keep a yacht, and then I traveled all over the world studying
localities; then I wrote from actual observation. Now, since my health
confines me to my home, I am forced to read up descriptions and geographies."

M. Verne asked me what my line of travel was to be, and I was very happy to
speak one thing that he could understand, so I told him.

"My line of travel is from New York to London, then Calais, Brindisi, Port
Said, Ismailia, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama,
San Francisco, New York."

"Why do you not go to Bombay as my hero Phileas Fogg did?" M. Verne asked.

"Because I am more anxious to save time than a young widow," I answered.

"You may save a young widower before you return," M. Verne said with a smile.

I smiled with a superior knowledge, as women, fancy free, always will at such
insinuations.

I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that my time was getting short.
There was only one train that I could take from here to Calais, and if I
missed it I might just as well return to New York by the way I came, for the
loss of that train meant one week's delay.

"If M. Verne would not consider it impertinent I should like to see his study
before I go," I said at last.

...

They clinked their glasses with wine, and wished me "God speed."

"If you do it in seventy-nine days, I shall applaud with both hands," Jules
Verne said, and then I knew he doubted the possibility of my doing it in
seventy-five, as I had promised. In compliment to me, he endeavored to speak
to me in English, and did succeed in saying, as his glass tipped mine:

"Good luck, Nellie Bly." """

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mc32
Good on her.

What I find interesting is that while J Verne's 80 days was inspired by the
calculations of a news article, she was able to accomplish it in 72 and as the
years went on the duration was whittled successively shorter attesting to the
rapid progress and investment the world was making in transport.

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rahulrrixe
Can we visit the whole world in just 72 days; considering we have more than
190+ countries and a lot of VISA applications.

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johnhenry
It's possible if you plan ahead; but that isn't what the author did.

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maxxxxx
I doubt this is possible. Maybe if you take helicopters to get from border to
border and have all immigration officials ready to process you once you
arrive.

