The Great Reading Adventure 2006

The following notes relate to the Oxford World’s Classic edition of Around the World in Eighty Days, translated by William Butcher. This is the official version used by the Great Reading Adventure and the page numbers refer to the special edition with the Wallace and Gromit cover.

Page	Word/Phrase	Explanation
1	Sheridan	Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816): influential Anglo-Irish playwright who was ruined by gambling and died in poverty. He actually lived at No 14 Savile Row.
1	Reform Club	A private club on Pall Mall formed by radicals in the 1830s.
1	Byron	George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron of Rochdale (1788-1824): prominent Romantic poet noted for his amorous adventures.
2	Baring Brothers	A family financial firm that had interests in marine insurance and the East India Company.
4	Passepartout	The word is translated as ‘skeleton-key, or other object that can pass everywhere’.
4	Léotard	Jules Léotard (1830-70): French acrobat who tightrope-walked over the Niagara Falls.
6	Angelica Kauffmann	(1741-1807): Swiss painter specialising in historical subjects.
6	Leroy or Earnshaw	Julien Leroy (1686-1759) or his son Pierre (1717-85): French clockmakers. Thomas Earnshaw (1749-1829): British watchmaker.
7	Frontins or Mascarilles	Frontins was an unscrupulous but ingenious valet in eighteenth-century comedy. Mascarilles was an insolent but clever servant, serving his own and his master’s interests.
7	Minerva	Roman goddess of wisdom, the arts, handicrafts and warfare.
14	Mont Cenis Tunnel	The first tunnel under the Alps and at 8.5 miles still one of the longest railway tunnels in the world. Completed 1871.
24	Suez Canal	Completed by the French on 17 November 1869. It halved the distance from London to Bombay.
24	M de Lesseps	Ferdinande-Marie de Lesseps, vicomte de Lesseps (1805-94): French diplomat responsible for the canal. He proposed Verne for the Légion d’Honneur.
24	Stephenson	Robert Stephenson (1803-59): British engineer who made these remarks in a Commons debate in 1858.
25	Sheppard	Jack Sheppard (1702-24): robber who managed four spectacular escapes from London prisons before being executed.
40	Banians	Hindu traders.
42	Sepoy Rebellion	Most often referred to as the Indian Mutiny (1857-8).
45	Parsees	Fire worshippers from Persia who fled to India to escape Muslim persecution.
48	transire benefaciendo	To do good while passing through this world.
49	Kali	Hindu goddess of time and destruction.
49	Aurangzeb	Mogul Emperor of India (1618-1707) responsible for destroying Hindu temples and shrines.
49	Thugs	Devotees of Kali who strangled travellers.
58	tam-tams	Asian gong.
59	Juggernaut Car	A Hindu god in the form of Krishna carried on a large wagon.
59	suttee	Particularly prevalent amongst the Brahmins of Bengal between 1680 and 1830, it was sometimes voluntary but cases of compulsion and escape were recorded.
70	The Ramayana	A Sanskrit epic poem.
70	Yusuf’Adil	A former Turkish slave who was Islamic King of Bijapur 1489-1510 and patron of the arts.
71	Vicvakarman	Hindu creator of the universe and god of mechanical objects and ornaments.
74	Lord Cornwallis	Lord Charles Cornwallis (1731-1805): general commanding British forces in the American War of Independence.
77	Obadiah	Exiled prophet in the Old Testament of strongly nationalistic tendencies.
82	Jeejeeboy	Alias Sir Jameshedji Jijibhai (1783-1859): rich Parsee who travelled to China five times and who endowed, among other things, bridges throughout India.
88	New Holland	The name for Australia until 1827.
127	Barnum	Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-91): flamboyant American showman, famous for his circus, The Greatest Show on Earth (1871), and his displays of freaks and curiosities. Said to have coined the phrase ‘there’s a sucker born every minute’.
128	Tengu	A creature with long beak or nose, wings, glittering eyes and a man’s torso, arms and legs. A protector of the performing arts.
149	Joe Smith	Joseph Smith (1805-44): a founder of the Mormons.
149	Brigham Young	Brigham Young (1801-77): second president of the Mormons and first governor of Utah. Arrested for polygamy.
151	Asphaltic Lake	Old name for the Dead Sea.
162	General J M Dodge	Grenville Mellen Dodge (1831-1916): chief engineer and author of a report on the Union Pacific Railroad.
162	Thomas C Durant	Thomas Clark Durant (1820-85): responsible for building the Union Pacific Railroad and organising its finance.
163	Amphion	Built the wall around Thebes by charming the stones into place with his lyre.
181	Chicago	A fire began on 8 October 1871, destroying half the city.
182	White Star Line	Popular name of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company.

Board game, Aeroplane Race Around the British Empire (British Empire and commonwealth Museum, shows a fictional flight path with various commonwealth countries along the way

Board game, Aeroplane Race Around the British Empire (British Empire and Commonwealth Museum www.imagesofempire.com)

Image from label affixed to bales of manufactured cloth, registered design of Steel Brothers & Co Ltd, a British conglomerate who traded in Burma, an area administered as a providence of India until 1937 (British Empire and Commonwealth Museum www.imagesofempire.com)

Prince Arthur of Connaught, Son of Queen Victoria, and his bearers, Hong Kong, 1906 (British Empire and Commonwealth Museum www.imagesofempire.com)

Opening of the Suez Canal, 1869

Poster for P T Barnum circus

Tengu - Japanese Figures with long noses

Brigham Young

Mrs O'Leary's cow, long blamed for starting the Chicago fire