The Wasp — 1890 — page 34: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon from *The Wasp* depicts Jules Verne's famous science-fiction novel *Around the World in Eighty Days* (1873). The page illustrates the fantastical journey humorously, showing various transportation methods and scenes: a character with a massive kite being pulled across water, figures on land engaged in comedic struggle, a steamship, and a street scene with crowds outside what appears to be a post office. The satire mocks the novel's implausible premise—that someone could circumnavigate the globe in just eighty days using the era's actual transportation technology. The exaggerated scenes and physical comedy emphasize the absurdity of such a rapid journey, treating Verne's adventurous fiction as humorous impossibility for contemporary readers.