Around the World in Eighty Days - ruined...

[alobear]

...by five words in the very last chapter!!

I was absolutely loving the audio version "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne, right up until the very last chapter, in which the incomparable Mr Fogg discovers he has the date wrong and has ten minutes to get to the Reform Club to win his bet and save himself from ruination.

Understandably, he is in a bit of a rush, and offers a cabbie £100 to get him to the club on time.

Then, after being a consummate gentleman of impeccable honour throughout the entire book - he arrives at the Reform Club -

- "having run over two dogs"!

I actually stopped in the street and uttered a cry of horror on my way from Finsbury Park this morning, and couldn't concentrate on the rest of the book at all.

Phileas Fogg, perhaps not ruined financially, but certainly ruined forever in my eyes.

Comments

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

I've not read it, though this makes me want to actually. Not to see the senselessly slaughtered dogs, of course, just because it's a story I only know from Michael Palin and cartoons and I feel I'd like to know more of it.
It's a shame about the dogs, but different times, different sensibilities, I guess :/

[alobear.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's definitely worth reading - it was somehow much more exciting than I was expecting it to be, as well as a lot of fun.