Kitobni o'qish: «Вокруг света за 80 дней / Around the World in Eighty Days»

© Матвеев С. А., адаптация текста, комментарии, словарь

© ООО «Издательство АСТ», 2021

Jules Verne
Around the world in eighty days

Chapter I

Mr.Phileas Fogg¹ was an Englishman and lived in London. He was a noticeable member of the Reform Club². He did not go to the Change³, nor to the Bank, nor to the “City”. He did not have ships at London docks; he had no public employment; his voice did not resound in the Court of Chancery⁴. He certainly was not a manufacturer; he wasn’t a merchant or a farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies. He did not belong to the numerous societies in the English capital. Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.

Was Phileas Fogg rich? Undoubtedly. But those who knew him could not imagine howhe made his fortune⁵. Mr. Fogg was not lavish, nor, on the contrary, avaricious. If money was needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied it quietly and sometimes anonymously. He talked very little. His daily habits were quite open to observation.

Did he travel? It was likely, for no one knew the world more familiarly. He liked to read the papers and play whist. He often won at this game, which harmonised with his nature. But his winnings never went into his purse. They were reserved as a fund for his charities. Mr. Fogg played, not to win, but to play. The game was in his eyes a contest, a struggle with a difficulty.

Phileas Fogg had no wife or children. He lived alone in his house in Saville Row. He breakfasted and dined at the club, at fixed hours, in the same room, at the same table. Henever took his meals with⁶ other members. He went home at exactly midnight, only to retire at once to bed. He passed ten hours out of the twenty-four in Saville Row. The mansion in Saville Row was exceedingly comfortable. Phileas Fogg required his servant to be very prompt and regular. On the 2nd of October he dismissed James Forster⁷, because that luckless youth brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit⁸ instead of eighty-six⁹. He was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.

Phileas Fogg sat squarely in his armchair, his feet close together, his hands on his knees, his body straight, his head erect. He was steadily watching a complicated clock which indicated the hours, the minutes, the seconds, the days, the months, and the years. A rap sounded on the door of the cosy apartment where Phileas Fogg sat. James Forster, the dismissed servant, appeared.

“The new servant,” said he.

A young man advanced andbowed¹⁰. He was about thirty years old.

“You are a Frenchman, I think,” asked Phileas Fogg, “and your name is John?”

“Jean, if monsieur pleases,” replied the newcomer, “Jean Passepartout¹¹. I had several trades. I was an itinerant singer¹², a circus-rider¹³, when I danced on a rope. Then I was a professor of gymnastics; and then I was a sergeant fireman¹⁴ at Paris. But I quitted France five years ago, and took service as a valet here in England.”

“Passepartout,” responded Mr. Fogg, “I heard a good report of you. You know my conditions?”

“Yes, monsieur.”