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Reform Club
“Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform Club, and that is all.”
The narrator, Around the world in 80 days
The Reform Club, the starting point for a round-the-world adventure
During his journey, Phileas Fogg and his companion Passe-Partout travel to India, China, Japan, and the United States, before returning to England, where the two men meet up with the members of the Reform Club, where their extraordinary adventure began. Not being himself a member of the famous institution of Savile Row in London, Jules Verne nevertheless chose to have his novel begin at the Reform Club. After all, his hero, the impetuous Phileas Fogg, belongs to the British elite and it is logical that he has entered the circle of the chosen ones.
Phileas Fogg, a funny character
As phlegmatic as he was wealthy, enigmatic at times and certainly unpredictable, he surprised his friends and embarked on a journey that was risky, to say the least, offering Jules Verne the opportunity to explore regions of the globe that were the subject of many fantasies at the time, such as the Indian jungle or the Far West. It is also a way to encourage curiosity and open-mindedness about these distant peoples who are sometimes subject to persistent prejudices.
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Jules Verne, an internationally recognized French novelist
The contrast between the muffled salons of the Reform Club and the countries that Phileas Fogg visits during his world tour is flagrant and gives a good part of its salt to the novel. A lover of travel, curious about nature and eager to imagine extraordinary stories, Jules Verne was already a recognized writer when he published Around the World in Eighty Days. Like other of his works, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the novel, quickly adapted to the theater with great success, was naturally exported and made the French writer one of the most appreciated abroad.
In total immersion
One of Jules Verne’s feats is to deliver descriptions that allow his readers to fully immerse themselves in his writings. In a way, Around the World in Eighty Days certainly allows him to survey remote regions but also to penetrate the Reform Club, this sanctuary closed to the public, strictly reserved for a chosen few.
The novel gave its name to a trophy awarded at the end of a race of a sailing boat around the world.
The Reform Club
Opened in 1836, the Reform Club was originally a very closed political circle that originated with the Great Reform Act of 1832.
The front façade was inspired by the Palazzo Farnese, a high Renaissance palace in Rome that was home to many architects, including Michelangelo.
It was not until 1920 that the club opened to a completely different audience, becoming a social circle, still private but less selective.
Until 1977, the membership fee was the most expensive in London.
In 1981, the club ceased to be exclusively male and opened to the female public.
Famous members of the club include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Winston Churchill, Henry James and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
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By Gilles Rolland
Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.