Around the World in Eighty Days · Chapter
XVI explained
The Rangoon steams from Calcutta to Hong Kong.
What happens
The Rangoon steams from Calcutta to Hong Kong. Aouda grows closer to Fogg, who remains stoic and precise. Fix, secretly aboard, plots to arrest Fogg in Hong Kong and considers using Aouda to create trouble. He reveals himself to Passepartout, who recounts Aouda's rescue.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This chapter marks the dramatic climax because it presents the highest physical and symbolic point of the jour…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Time and Punctuality
Fogg remains 'as well and as punctual as ever,' maintaining his schedule despite the journey and Aouda's presence.
- Cultural Encounter and Imperialism
Aouda's Parsee background and the British colonial context in India and Hong Kong highlight cultural intersections.
- Justice and Mistaken Identity
Fix's pursuit of Fogg as a bank robber, based on mistaken identity, drives the detective's scheming.
Characters to notice
- Phileas Fogg
Continues his journey with punctuality, treating Aouda with polite precision and visiting her daily.
- Passepartout
Reunites with Fix on the Rangoon and recounts Aouda's rescue and the events in Calcutta.
- Fix
Secretly aboard the Rangoon, he plots to arrest Fogg in Hong Kong and considers using Aouda to delay him.
- Aouda
Travels with Fogg, grateful for his protection, and shares her Parsee heritage and hope to meet her relative Jeejeeh in Hong Kong.
Key passages
“As well and as punctual as ever, not a day behind time!”
He is in perfect health and strictly on schedule, without any delay.
Passepartout assures Fix that Fogg remains precise and timely.
“Aouda fastened her great eyes, 'clear as the sacred lakes of the Himalaya,' upon him; but the intractable Fogg, as reserved as ever, did not seem at all inclined to throw himself into this lake.”
Aouda gazed at Fogg with her beautiful, clear eyes, but he remained aloof and unresponsive.
Describes Aouda's hopeful look and Fogg's characteristic emotional detachment.
“Hong Kong was the last English ground on which he would set foot; beyond, China, Japan, America offered to Fogg an almost certain refuge.”
Hong Kong was the final British territory where Fogg could be arrested; beyond it, he could easily escape to non-British lands.
Fix's strategic concern about the limits of his legal authority.
