Around the World in Eighty Days — Chapter 1 in French
By Jules Verne
En l’année 1872, la maison portant le numéro 7 de Saville-row, Burlington Gardens, — maison dans laquelle Shéridan mourut en 1814, — était habitée par Phileas Fogg, esq., l’un des membres les plus singuliers et les plus remarqués du Reform-Club de Londres, bien qu’il semblât prendre à tâche de ne rien faire qui pût attirer l’attention. Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. On disait qu’il ressemblait à Byron, — par la tête, car il était irréprochable quant aux pieds, — mais un Byron à moustaches et à favoris, un Byron impassible, qui aurait vécu mille ans sans vieillir. People said that he resembled Byron—at least that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old.
Anglais, à coup sûr, Phileas Fogg n’était peut-être pas Londonner. Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. Son nom n’avait jamais retenti dans un collège d’avocats, ni au Temple, ni à Lincoln’s-inn, ni à Gray’s-inn. Jamais il ne plaida ni à la Cour du chancelier, ni au Banc de la Reine, ni à l’Echiquier, ni en Cour ecclésiastique. He was never seen on 'Change, nor at the Bank, nor in the counting-rooms of the "City"; no ships ever came into London docks of which he was the owner; he had no public employment; he had never been entered at any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple, or Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded in the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen's Bench, or the Ecclesiastical Courts. Il n’était ni industriel, ni négociant, ni marchand, ni agriculteur. He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. Il ne faisait partie ni de l’Institution royale de la Grande-Bretagne, ni de l’Institution de Londres, ni de l’Institution des Artisans, ni de l’Institution Russell, ni de l’Institution littéraire de l’Ouest, ni de l’Institution du Droit, ni de cette Institution des Arts et des Sciences réunis, qui est placée sous le patronage direct de Sa Gracieuse Majesté. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal Institution or the London Institution, the Artisan's Association, or the Institution of Arts and Sciences. Il n’appartenait enfin à aucune des nombreuses sociétés qui pullulent dans la capitale de l’Angleterre, depuis la Société de l’Armonica jusqu’à la Société entomologique, fondée principalement dans le but de détruire les insectes nuisibles. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects.
Phileas Fogg était membre du Reform-Club, et voilà tout. Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.
La manière dont il avait obtenu son admission à ce club exclusif était fort simple. The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club was simple enough.