1885 Roche Freres Game Map, Around the World in 80 Days

Reliving Jules Verne's great adventure novel.

A delightful c. 1885 French-language chromolithograph board game produced by Roche Frères based on Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Sticking close to the novel's plot, players travel from London through the Suez Canal, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and the United States before returning to the Reform Club in London.

A Closer Look

The tiles surrounding the map are numbered, beginning at bottom-left with Mr. Phileas Fogg, the novel's protagonist. The second tile introduces his French valet, Passepartout, whose name roughly means 'goes everywhere.' Aouda, an Indian princess who joins the expedition part-way through and becomes Fogg's love interest, is introduced on tile 21. Other tiles recount important scenes and secondary characters from the novel and reflect the general progression eastwards from London.

Verne's novel drew on multiple inspirations, including actual travelers who had circumnavigated the globe by rail and steamship. Notably, the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Suez Canal, and several rail lines linking the Indian Subcontinent, all in the years 1869-1870, made such a journey much more feasible. Several errors and anachronisms appear, such as a Chinese pagoda being labeled as an 'Indian temple' and the inclusion of the Statue of Liberty, not completed until years after the novel was published.

The rules of the game, explained on the pages of the accompanying booklet, involve players contributing to or drawing tokens from a chest (caisse) under certain conditions. Dice are rolled at each turn, with the highest roll becoming Phileas Fogg for that turn, gaining certain advantages as a result, and the lowest role becoming Passepartout, which brings with it certain impediments. Landing on certain tiles on the board can also cause a player to lose or gain tokens.

Publication History and Census

Though no maker is indicated, this game board was most likely produced by the Imprimerie Roche Frères, an outfit that appears to have published little else besides this game in several editions. It is undated, but the inclusion of the Statue of Liberty suggests the mid-late 1880s. Due to the popularity of the novel, several such board games were produced in the 1870s - 1910s, including those by Pierre-Jules Hetzel and Bertarelli Achille, both sold previously by Geographicus. We are unaware of this edition of the game existing in any institutional collections or on the market, while the Pennsylvania State University Library holds an edition with some minor differences (OCLC 907735219).

Condition

Good. Laid on linen. Wear and loss along the linen backing between bottom two boards. Folds down to one-quarter size into original booklet, which also contains game description and rules.