Around the World in Eighty Days — Chapter 1 in Italian
By Jules Verne
Nell’anno 1872, la casa recante il numero 7 di Saville-row, Burlington Gardens, — casa in cui morì Sheridan nel 1814, — era abitata da Phileas Fogg, esq., uno dei membri più singolari e più segnalati del Reform-Club di Londra, quantunque sembrasse studiarsi di non far nulla che potesse attirare l’attenzione. 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. Si diceva che rassomigliasse a Byron, — nella testa, poichè era senza difetti ai piedi – ma un Byron senza passioni, freddo, impassibile, da poter vivere mille anni senza invecchiare fisicamente. 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.
Inglese, senz’alcun dubbio, Phileas Fogg non era forse Londinese. Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. Il suo nome non era mai risuonato in un collegio d’avvocati, nè al Tempio, nè a Lincoln’s inn, nè a Gray’s inn. Non litigò mai nè alla Corte del Cancelliere, nè al Banco della Regina, nè allo Scacchiere, nè in Corte ecclesiastica. 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. Non era industriale, nè negoziante, nè mercante, nè agricoltore. He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. Non faceva parte nè dell’Istituto Reale della Gran Bretagna, nè dell’Istituto di Londra, nè dell’Istituto degli Artigiani, nè dell’Istituto Russel, nè dell’Istituto letterario dell’Ovest, nè dell’Istituto del Diritto, nè di quell’Istituto delle Arti e delle Scienze riunite, che è posto sotto il patronato diretto di Sua Graziosa Maestà. 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. Insomma non apparteneva ad alcuna delle numerose società che pullulano nella capitale dell’Inghilterra, dalla Società dell’Armonica sino alla Società entomologica, fondata principalmente allo scopo di distruggere gli insetti nocivi. 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 era membro del Reform-Club, ed ecco tutto. Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.
Il modo in cui ottenne l'ammissione a questo club esclusivo era piuttosto semplice. The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club was simple enough.