The Fixed Period

Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 369K words
Chapters: 37

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Fixed Period by Anthony TrollopeAuthor: Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 27, 2008

Editor's review

The Fixed Period is a late novel by Anthony Trollope with utopian and dystopian overtones. It imagines a society that sets sixty as the fixed age for retirement and departure from life, using this premise to explore with irony the tensions between utilitarianism, institutional rationality, and personal dignity. The work continues Trollope's characteristic fine-grained narration and gentle irony, though its subject matter is unusual within his oeuvre; it will appeal to readers interested in Victorian social thought, aging, and institutional ethics. As a public-domain ebook, this edition offers only the English original, with no notes or introduction, and requires the ability to read a long English novel. It is best understood in the context of Trollope's late work and of nineteenth-century British debates over population, efficiency, and the value of life. Suitable for thematic reading or book-club selection rather than for readers seeking a tightly plotted leisure read.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers with a systematic reading plan for Victorian British fiction
Social-science readers concerned with aging and bioethics
Readers who enjoy satirical social speculation and institutional critique
Language learners able to read long novels in the English original

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast-paced plotting or strong dramatic conflict
Readers with weak English reading skills who need Chinese annotations
Beginners expecting a detailed introduction to the author's life and work

Reading tips

Learn about Trollope's late career and Victorian social context before starting the text.
Read it as a thought experiment, noting contradictions between the institutional setup and characters' responses as you go.
Use it for book-club discussion, exchanging views on the reasonableness and human cost of the "fixed period" system.
For the English original, set a fixed daily page count; mark institutional terms first and look them up together later.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a Chinese edition?

No. This edition comes from Project Gutenberg; the text is in the English original with no Chinese annotations or introduction, so readers need the ability to read a long English novel.

Will the lack of notes and introduction affect comprehension?

It raises the bar somewhat. The book engages nineteenth-century social institutions and utilitarian debate; without background explanation, one may read only the surface plot, so it is advisable to consult relevant historical background first.

Is it suitable as an introduction to Trollope?

Not very. Its subject matter is unusual within his work; if you are new to Trollope, begin with his more representative novels of social manners, then return to this work's satirical target.

Comments

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About the author

Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882 Author

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was a prolific English novelist of the Victorian era, with 83 works held in this collection. He is best known for the Barsetshire novels, including The Last Chronicle of Barset, Barchester Towers, and Framley Parsonage, which are set in a fictional English county and portray the daily life, social manners, and power struggles of the clergy and gentry. Other major works, such as The Way We Live Now, The Prime Minister, Orley Farm, and Can You Forgive Her?, turn to politics, business, and marriage, revealing with careful restraint and gentle irony the tension between social convention and personal ambition. Public information is limited, yet his plain narrative style, large casts of clearly drawn characters, and depiction of Victorian social structure retain lasting value for readers.