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How is 11:22 four minutes slow if it's actually 11:29?

In the first chapter of Around the World in 80 Days, Phileas Fogg meets Jean Passepartout, his new servant, and they introduce themselves. As part of this, Fogg asks Jean what time it is:

“Passepartout suits me,” responded Mr. Fogg. “You are well recommended to me; I hear a good report of you. You know my conditions?”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Good! What time is it?”
“Twenty-two minutes after eleven,” returned Passepartout, drawing an enormous silver watch from the depths of his pocket.
“You are too slow,” said Mr. Fogg.
“Pardon me, monsieur, it is impossible—”
“You are four minutes too slow. No matter; it’s enough to mention the error. Now from this moment, twenty-nine minutes after eleven, a.m., this Wednesday, 2nd October, you are in my service.”
Phileas Fogg got up, took his hat in his left hand, put it on his head with an automatic motion, and went off without a word.
_{Around the World in 80 Days (1873) by Jules Verne, Project Gutenburg version}

Passepartout says it is 11:22; Fogg says that's four minutes too slow, and then declares that it is 11:29.
No matter how many times I do the math, I still come up with 11:26.

I've confirmed that the numbers are the same in my print copy of the book (the Penguin Popular Classics version, translated by Jacqueline Rogers).

What's going on with this number discrepancy? Why does Fogg say it's 11:29 but that 11:22 is four minutes slow? Am I missing something here?

Answer

It is not a translator's error, since the French text contains the same times. [Wikisource's French version](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Tour_du_monde_en_quatre-vingts_jours/Chapitre_1) is as follows:

> — Bien. Quelle heure avez-vous ?  
— Onze heures vingt-deux, répondit Passepartout, en tirant des profondeurs de son gousset une énorme montre d’argent.  
— Vous retardez, dit Mr. Fogg.  
— Que monsieur me pardonne, mais c’est impossible.  
— Vous retardez de quatre minutes. N’importe. Il suffit de constater l’écart. Donc, à partir de ce moment, onze heures vingt-neuf du matin, ce mercredi 2 octobre 1872, vous êtes à mon service.

(The same times can also be found in the [scanned version at Gallica](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8600244d/f13.item), so it doesn't seem to be a transcription error on Wikisource. On Project Gutenberg, the times are also the same in the [version released in 2014](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/46541/pg46541-images.html) and in the [version released in 2002](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3456/pg3456-images.html).)

I think this is a foreshadowing of the end of the novel, where Phileas Fogg thinks he needed 81 days to travel around the globe, whereas in reality it was 80 days. Both at the start and at the end of the novel, he gets the time wrong, even though the scale of the error is bigger at the end.

Edit Summary

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I am not expert on French but I am almost sure "Vous retardez." means "You are late." not "You are too slow." as it was translated in the question.
– pabouk - Ukraine stay strong
Commented Jul 8 at 22:07
1

@pabouk-Ukrainestaystrong You should post that as a comment on the question. My answer doesn't use the word "slow". Note also that Fogg expected Passepartout between 11:00 and 11:30, so Passepartout's arrival is well within that time slot. Moreover, it is clear from the dialog that "Vous retardez" refers to the watch being slow (in spite of the pronoun "vous"). We don't say that a watch is "late" but that it is "x minutes slow".
– Tsundoku
Commented Jul 8 at 22:13
It's not the only error Verne makes. At the end of the novel Fogg arrives in London "just as the clocks are striking ten to nine", to which the translator of my edition wrote a sarcastic footnote "By some strange peculiarity of the London clocks".
– DJClayworth
Commented Jul 12 at 0:41

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