The Fixed Period

by Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. He wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day. In 1867 Trollope left his position in the British Post Office to run for Parliament as a Liberal candidate in 1868. After he lost, he concentrated entirely on his literary career. While continuing to produce novels rapidly, he also edited the St. Paul's Magazine, which published several of his novels in serial form. His first major success came with The Warden (1855) - the first of six novels set in the fictional county of Barsetshire. The comic masterpiece Barchester Towers (1857) has probably become the best-known of these. Trollope's popularity and critical success diminished in his later years, but he continued to write prolifically, and some of his later novels have acquired a good reputation. In particular, critics generally acknowledge the sweeping satire The Way We Live Now (1875) as his masterpiece. In all, Trollope wrote forty-seven novels, as well as dozens of short stories and a few books on travel.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Dystopia, Novels, Science Fiction, English Literature, 19th Century

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1882

About the author

Anthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.

Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...

Reviews

[Justin Pickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you in your late sixties? Euthanasia. That's the law in this futuristic utopia. Forget social security retirement benefits. That would be too costly, saddling the young with an unfair burden. The view in this society is that since old people "should be troubled no longer with labour," they should also "be troubled no longer with life."

"Let any man look among his friends and see whether men of sixty-five are not in the way of those who are still aspiring to rise in the world."

Set in 1980 (published in 1882), The Fixed Period is the oddest of Anthony Trollope's novels. It describes a small, Island-bound society (Britannula) that has otherwise abolished capital punishment, but where an increasingly controversial solution to the problem of old age has been enacted:

"It consists altogether of the abolition of the miseries, weakness and fainéant imbecility of old age by the prearranged ceasing to live of those who would otherwise become old."

In the story, the euthanasia law has been enacted but has yet to be applied to anyone. The problem is that the law's strongest advocate, the President of Britannula, is very close friends with the first old person scheduled to be euthanized. The President's friend was once a supporter of the law, but, unsurprisingly, has changed his mind now that the time has come for him to be deposited (in the college) before euthanasia. He and his family, as well as the potential victims that will follow him, and even the President's family, are pushing back against the law, while the President digs in his heels and wants it carried out. The President sees himself as a visionary, like Galilo.

"The few wise ... have ever been the laughing-stock of the silly crowds."

I was surprised that Trollope wrote this, and I didn't know what to expect. I would have liked the novel better if the story focused more on the broader society of Britannula, and less on the micro-conflict between the President, his family, and his friends. Additionally, there was a long part about cricket that seemed unnecessary and was a distraction. Ultimately, I think Trollope got carried away with trying to work in references to contemporary cricket-related events, and with contrasting idealism and military might, and the story suffered for it.

"It astonished me to find that the boy was quite as eager about his cricket as I was about my 'Fixed Period.'"

OTHER MEMORABLE QUOTES:

"But the prejudices of the citizens are ever the stumbling-blocks of civilisation."

"Strength is very strong, but it is not half so powerful as weakness."

"A divine idea has to be made common to men's minds by frequent ventilation before it will be seen to be fit for humanity."

"As far as I can read the will of the Almighty, or rather the progress of the ways of human nature, it is for man to endeavor to improve the conditions of mankind."

"I would again enlarge on the meanness of the man who could not make so small a sacrifice of his latter years for the benefit of the rising generation."

[Tony]

So, I joined the Literary People discussion group here when it was first created, armed as usual with the best intentions but, typically for me, lacking in participation. And there've been some interesting selections for group reads, quality works just off the beaten track. But all they did was push the TBR mountain higher and higher. Till now. An angle of repose, and the books topple, bouncing down the hill, and I bend and pick up one at my feet: 'The Fixed Period'. What the . . .?

Jenn, the group moderator, called it a dystopian piece of Victorian fiction in the key of Jonathan Swift's satire in Gulliver's Travels. Imagine: Trollope, known for his plots of Victorian class and manners, writes, in 1882, a novel set 100 years in the future. The story takes place on an invented island - Britannula. (Brit-an-NOO-la, Brit-an-NOO-la; rhymes with . . .) Britannula, near New Zealand, was graciously allowed by England to become a Republic. The island's president, John Neverbend, has given much thought to the problem of aging. He's . . . well . . . he's against it. As he says, "It is self-evident that at sixty-five a man has done all that he is fit to do." And so, after much legislative back and forth, Britannula sets a fixed period in its Constitution. At age 67 each citizen will be deposited with much fanfare in a 'college', like a very nice resort, to live stress-free, until age 68, when he will be euthanized.

Trollope was almost 67 when he wrote 'The Fixed Period'. He would not live to 68. The book sold 887 copies and received baffled reviews. A century would pass before it was re-published. Response has been tepid.

Jenn wrote: The Fixed Period is a seldom-read work from a prolific author, and I want to learn why! Maybe it's because it's not very good.

President Neverbend, who narrates, does not give anything approaching a convincing rationale, so one wonders how the idea ever became law in the first place. Indeed, the only character besides Neverbend who seems in favor of it has the hidden motive of wanting to get his hands on Crasweller's farm. Crasweller, Neverbend's best friend, is the first one up to be deposited, and he wavers. Whether he will or will not be euthanized is the crux of the plot. There are quite a lot of discussions, mostly repetitive, about that.

For Neverbend, once something like the Fixed Period becomes law, that's pretty much the end of the matter. The name's kind of a giveaway, isn't it? But in case you weren't sure: Nothing can turn him from his purpose, or induce him to change his inflexible will. I don't think a first-time author could have gotten away with that.

Trollope is better with characters, here, when more subtle. Mrs. Neverbend, whom we get to know only through bits of dialogue, charms. Eva, whom every eligible bachelor is lovesick about, is slowly revealed as someone who will always get what she wants.

As sci-fi, 'The Fixed Period' is not very imaginative. It's 1980 and people motor about on steam-powered tricycles. Steam powers boats, too. Trollope managed, though, to predict that there would be a telephone that could hear the spoken word and immediately print it on a page.

He foretold something else. Crasweller's confides that his main problem with the 'college' is that the chimneys from the crematorium were plainly visible. Even the intractable Neverbend admits that was a mistake. Chilling.

I read this not quite at the depositing age, but close enough. Will you still need me? Will you still feed me? Hoo!

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange, strange Anthony Trollope book. I liked it, but it's a very unusual one for him.

[Darryl Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, I went in with NO idea of what to expect—a futuristic dystopian science-fiction novel by Trollope?!

But quite surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed it—both for its uniqueness among all other Victorian novels I’ve ever read before, and for the knock-out reading company through this one!! Thanks, Elizabeth and Art!!

Our highly unreliable narrator, John Neverbend, has introduced the “Fixed Period” into the legislation of a new independent and autonomous community, Britannula, of which he is the President. And what might the “Fixed Period” be? Pre-determined euthanasia at the age of 67.

Thus commences a fascinating novel that uses this bizarre setup to posit highly engaging, and surprisingly relevant, questions on the concepts of social construct, morality, the process of the law and governance, colonialism, human dignity, utilitarianism, and the beauty and honour of aging. The writing is compelling, and the conversations it enkindled with my fellow buddy readers were exceptional and highly thought-provoking.

Be prepared for some weirdness—but nonetheless, I enthusiastically recommend this one!

[Andrew Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trollope has a go at speculative fiction, shades of A Modest Proposal in a setting reminiscent of several Victorian utopian/dystopian novels. It’s not a long book but it was plenty long enough for me, a short story would have covered the idea adequately. As satire there’s little bite, and the world wasn’t very interesting since the focus was almost solely on one premise, a rather silly one at that. Lightweight but entertaining.

[Elizabeth]

What an experience!!! Would never have been able to stick with this Very Odd Book without my doughty buddy readers, Darryl and Art. I owe ya! It was odd (for a Trollope novel!) but also surprisingly compelling.

Do go and read my friend Darryl’s review of this novel! He captures it brilliantly and much better than I could!

[John Mccullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read this book many years ago and thought it was worth reading again, for the wicked humor, if nothing else.

Written in 1881 and 1882, Trollope transports his Victorian audience to the year 1980 and the island country of Britannula, a former colony of Great Britain, now independent, which had recently chosen to institute a new, radical policy of compassionately terminating its citizens at the age of 68. This was rationalized as both humane, to end the horrible sufferings of old age, and practical, as their economically useful lives were over and it was estimated to save Britannula 50 Pounds Sterling for each departed citizen. What could go wrong???

The book was revolutionary at the time and brought condemnation from all but adherents to cremation. It falls into several modern literary categories. It is humorous, especially if you appreciate gallows humor. It is serious as it deals with important moral, economic and political questions of that time and now. It is obviously an early example of both dystopic science fiction and speculative fiction a la Margaret Atwood. And it is humorously clever, using memes or names from the beloved game of cricket as well as Dickensian descriptive names, such as that for the inflexible narrator, John Neverbend, naval Captain Battleax and the livestock business of Grundle and Grabbe (not as good as the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham and Howe, or the Dew Drop Inns, but a nice addition to the genre).

Alas, all that thoughtfulness and humor came to naught in Trollope’s time, selling less than 800 copies, his worst sale ever. Perhaps it put too many knickers in a twist. Perhaps, despite all the time expended on humor and clever names it was, at base, just too serious. Whatever, it is seldom read these days, just as in Trollope’s time, which is a shame.

The science fiction side of the book is seen in such inventions as the powered steam bicycle, the reporting-telephone apparatus (tape recorder) or the 250-ton steam-swivel (gun-turreted battleship). No planes, though – a bridge too far, like the Fixed Period.

Other debatable questions: How would the general citizenry face a specific date for their elimination soon after their 68th - or any other – birthday? Would a flexible date of departure based on usefulness, etc., be any better? How about condemned criminals knowing weeks, months or years in advance their date of “departure?” A date with France’s guillotine and Japan’s noose is told to the criminal only on the day on which it will happen – is that any better, more humane? And the thought of saving the country money? Years ago, one Central European country estimated that retaining a high tax on cigarettes and not discouraging smoking could save the country millions by early tobacco deaths. Such forward thinking!!

Other, more subtle, questions are briefly considered in the book. For a tome as short as it is, it packs an interesting punch. Last, I had trouble zipping through Trollope’s sentence construction. My bad or his? Still, a thoughtful and entertaining book.

[Dominick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not one of Trollope's more popular books, but I liked it a lot. Trollope's one foray into SF is an impressive social satire. He imagines a former British colony, Brittannula, one hundred years into the future. This colony would seem to be almost utopian: it has universal education, it has abolished capital punishment, it has no army and apparently little in the way of crime. However, , it also has a law dictating that each citizen is to be euthanized at the age of 67. Mr Neverbend (a typical Trollopian name) has determined, in his wisdom, that 1) the elderly are no longer productive citizens, costing more to maintain than they can generate in revenue, and 2) old age brings with it misery and suffering. Therefore, for the benefit of the state, and to prevent individual suffering, euthanasia of the old is the only rational policy. He has managed to convince the Brittannulans to make this law. Years pass. Then, the time for the first euthanizing to occur approaches. . . . Neverbend is in many respects a typical Trollopian monomaniac, devoted as he is to this concept of the Fixed Period. Unusually, though, Trollope allows him to tell his own story, thereby lending the tale a level of narrative complexity it might otherwise lack. We can see only through Neverbend's eyes, and he is a subtly unreliable narrator. Convinced of his own rightness, he nevertheless reveals the various problems of his concept. Trollope anticipates Orwell in Neverbend's careful manipulation of language to try to make the plan to kill the elderly sound more palatable. He is not a wicked monster, a la Hitler, but that perhaps makes him only the more appalling: he genuinely believes in the reasonableness and the benevolence of his ideology, a sort of utilitarianism and economic pragmatism run amuck. He is blind the the irony of the humanitarianism of having eliminated capital punishment in contrast to a planned state-sanctioned execution of the majority of citizens once they reach 67. Like most ideologues, Neverbend cannot account for human nature--including his own. He does not seem to recognize, for instance, that his claim to be interested only in serving humanity's best interests flies in the face of his repeated comparisons of himself to Galileo or Columbus: he wants to be a great man and innovator, so the desire for glory is an unacknowledged underlying factor in his persistence. Even by the end of the book, he does not seem entirely to grasp that he is likely to have enduring fame, but it is unlikely to put him in the company of other such luminaries. Undeed, near the end, there are intimations that he might see himself as a sort of Christ figure, the irony of which is palpable. Unraveling the ironies of the book is its chief pleasure.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entirely too much cricket.

[Penny -Thecatladybooknook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Did I enjoy this? Not really. It was fine. It definitely has Trollope's voice tho which is what I was wanting in choosing this to read. (And I needed a stand alone scifi or fantasy for Summer Book Bingo.)

Probably not the best book for me to read right after reading The Giver graphic novel as both dealt with euthanasia of the elderly after a certain age. This happens to be in the 1980s (far future for the year Trollope wrote this).

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very strange book to hop into with no warning while looking for new Trollope—suddenly he's writing dystopian fiction set in 1980, and he's not especially good at it. (He can't avoid, after all, being himself, and being preoccupied with his own preoccupations.)

But an interesting read, if you come at it sympathetically. What was most fun, to me, was imagining that Britannula was exactly as he describes it in the actual 1980, rather than the extremely Victorian one he is implicitly writing about—this is possible because Trollope's POV character is the hardest-line Britannulian there is. Thinking about them this way, their strange customs and retrograde ideas, combined with the titular Fixed Period law, makes them a fascinating hermit kingdom a la North Korea, rather than the very independent but culturally modern-British country Trollope was probably envisioning.

[Amelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars because of president Neverband! The audacity of this man.

[Catherine T · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generous three stars.

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

"[…] There’s a Prejudice About Killing an Old Man, or a Woman. Young Men Don’t Matter."

Even the avid Trollope reader might feel surprised, as I most certainly did, at learning that the man who invented and peopled the whole county of Barsetshire, bedecking it with so much real-life detail, also wrote what is nowadays called a dystopian novel. However, you will probably feel slightly less surprised when you take a look at this dystopian novel, The Fixed Period, whose first instalments appeared in 1881, and find that it is, naturally, still largely influenced by its author’s Victorian mindset.

Although its setting is a former British colony named Britannula near Australia in 1980, people still need months to travel from Great Britain to Oceania, and they do this on board a ship, as though there were no air traffic at all. Britannula’s wealth is still founded on agriculture rather than manufacture, modern technologies or services, and women seem as yet to adhere to a code of behaviour dating from the 19th century. Doubtless, Trollope’s contemporary Verne was miles ahead in terms of extrapolating technological development, and so Britannula’s inhabitants are still confined to travelling in horse-drawn carriages unless they have recourse to their “steam tricycles”. Nevertheless it would do Trollope an injustice to judge his novel on the basis of his little skill of anticipating what science and technology would be able to achieve. The plot is concerned with euthanasia and the question if human life can be considered worthless and burdensome at a certain point in time, and the actual point is if Trollope managed to treat this question, which at the writer’s time was a merely academic one, and has come to take on its fiercely menacing shape but for us who have learnt about the terrors of the 20th century.

In Britannula, there is a law that makes it incumbent on people reaching the age of 67 to leave the outside world and withdraw into a certain College, there preparing for death, which is going to follow after twelve more months at the hands of a government official. Britannula being a relatively young society when this law was passed, the so-called Deposition has never been effected as yet, but now the time for Britannula’s eldest citizen to withdraw from public life is approaching. This senior citizen is the wealthy, and quite healthy, Mr. Crasweller, who used to be in favour of the Fixed Period (the official lifespan of 68 years allotted to each citizen), but who by and by comes to resent this monster he helped create. Mr. Neverbend, both the first-person narrator of the story and the president of Britannula, has always been a fervent proponent of the Fixed Period, he being about ten years Crasweller’s junior, and he even regards this law as his personal contribution to mankind’s cultural, social and economic progress. In the face of public opinion and against the wishes of everybody around him, Neverbend tries to convince Crasweller to submit to the law for the sake of human development as a whole – even though Crasweller what with his mental and physical health and the love of his daughter hardly seems to be the best illustration of the usefulness of the Fixed Period.

Quite obviously, The Fixed Period has a lot of potential to appeal to modern readers, but in my opinion, on the whole, it fails to do so. The plot itself is dull, the characters appearing distant and void so that we can hardly care about them. Apart from that, the first-person narrator over and over again repeats the same ideas, worries and thoughts, rehashing the same arguments whenever the plot gives him the slightest opportunity, simultaneously insisting that there are other arguments he need not go into again. What he says in favour of The Fixed Period is mainly based on the idea that old age brings sufferance and pain for the individual, and costs, frustration and discomfort for his environment. Interestingly, although Trollope does not seem to share Mr. Neverbend’s point of view at all, making him out to be quite a vain person, he is not too generous with the ideas of his opponents, either, thus pinpointing the hypocrisy we are accustomed to comply with when dealing with questions of life and death – simply cf. the title of my little text here, or Sir Ferdinando Brown’s completely fiddling oration on the topic. It is details like these that really show what Trollope wanted to criticize (he probably also wanted to undertake a defense of the House of Lords and the bicameral system as such).

All in all, however, there are hardly any really interesting debates on euthanasia in this book, and the most interesting chapter with regard to a discussion of the value of life is the very last. This is, therefore, definitely not Trollope at his best, although it still provides some food for thought.

It may strike you as one of life’s eerie coincidences that 67, the age when Britannulians had to enter the College and prepare for death, was also the age when Trollope himself passed on.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pseudo science fiction book written in 1882. Which is interesting in it's own right. There is a small bit of future tech that is still grounded in things like steam power from the time. This is all just background though, to set the story in 1980, to make it sound like this might not be such a crazy far fetched idea a century from now/1880.

The entire premise is that this small independent island nation institutes a forced euthanasia program at the age of 68 - The Fixed Period. I found this...interesting, or odd maybe, I'm not sure what the right word is, while my family is caring for a nearly 99 year old grandpa in our home. It's the exact opposite of the idea behind the fixed period. They say that at that age, people basically become worthless, a drain on society, and that society would be so much better off, more wealthy, etc if people just died and passed their belongings down.

Of course, once it's time for this to actually take place, people realize how horrific it actually is. The main character, whose name is a little too on the nose [though this is meant to be satire] - Mr. Neverbend, will not change from their law, because it's SUCH a great idea, he likens himself to Columbus and Galileo. This, in despite of everyone turning on him, including his own wife and son. The first to be 'deposited' is one of his best friends, who also helped write up the law. But he eventually relents and carries through with it, because he is such a great friend to Mr. Neverbend.

Meanwhile there is a great long chapter about cricket that I didn't entirely understand. I think it was just to do with their pride and how great they are because they beat the English team. But knowing nothing about cricket, a lot of it was meaningless to me.

And then, just as Crasweller is being brought for his Fixed Period, the English show up with great big guns and an army and saying they are removing their independence because of this atrocious custom. The people realize just how much they love their freedom from the overpowered empire of Britain and once again side with Neverbend. But the English are too strong, and they force their own governor and take Neverbend away and the Fixed Period ends. But his new plan is to preach the good in the idea and maybe in a century (2080 then I guess) humanity will come to realize that it should be in place after all. And now 2080 is just under 60 years away and we'll see. Euthanasia in general is becoming more accepted in parts of the world, but I'd still assume that Forced euthanasia will still have no place in society. Doesn't stop countless other IPs to show the possibilities, though.

The book overall is interesting, but it sure reads like a book from long long ago. Also, the kindle edition said it was only 90 pages, so I thought I'd zip through it, but a page was actually 3 kindle pages, so it was much longer than expected.

[Jenn Avery · Rating 2 out of 5]

*SPOILERS

Brace yourself. Try to imagine a world in which the violin has become “nearly obsolete.” I know, right?! You’ve nearly fallen to your knees, begging for mercy, asking yourself why. Why, great creator, did humanity ever get to this point?

I am a big fan of the violin. I am learning to play it at almost 40 years old because I feel that it is the most beautiful instrument on the planet. Yet, when Trollope kicks off his futuristic dystopia novella The Fixed Period (British, 1882) with this absolutely chilling vision, it signals that although Trollope is one of the most skilled Victorian Realist writers, the man had next to no imagination.

After reading this haunting premonition about what could befall the human race (violion-less? All?), I read The Fixed Period with eye to technology. What would Trollope marshal in to replace the violin? How far could technology extend itself? And scavenge as I may, I was very hard-pressed to find tech here — but I did find some.

Firstly, though, this novella is rather unexceptional in its plot. I might go so far as to call it below-average. It revolves around 16-year old Eva Crasweller, whose father is about to be the first “Periodist” executed at sixty-seven and a half years old. Everyone pines after Eva: even the stiff-jawed, glory-obsessed narrator and leader of Brittanula, John Neverbend, who is himself close to his “Fixed Period” of sanctioned euthanasia, and his handsome son, Jack.

Eva is “merely a child,” but unlike the “unprofitable children” too young to turn a profit, she has value. She is beautiful, for one. That currency hasn’t changed in the future. And she is set on stopping the country from murdering her father. Neverbend fears her, not because her “opinion” could “oppose the progress of civilization,” but because “her feelings will.” She is educated, and “when I say educated, I mean prejudiced.”

Eva’s father is Neverbend’s best friend, but the leader upholds the laws of the country for glory. He simply wants to be like “Columbus and Galileo.” He notes that “I shall be spoken of as the first who endeavored to save grey hairs from being brought with sorrow to the grave.” Anyone who doesn’t follow is “so vain, so greedy, so selfish, and so unpatriotic.”

Like many utopian visions, Neverbend’s ideals center on freedom from the fear of death. This is, perhaps, a central desire in most — if not all — utopian (and hence, dystopian) ideas. He notes that,

"I had known from the beginning that the fear of death was a human weakness. To obliterate that fear from the human heart, and to build up a perfect manhood that should be liberated from so vile a thraldom, had been one of the chief objects of my scheme."

The “Fixed Period” euthanizes the elderly and puts an end to a “useless and painful life” in a “world for which he is not fitted.” Moreover, it comes with some perks:

"the sum actually saved would amount to 1,000,000 a year. It would keep us out of debt, make for us our railways, render all our rivers navigable, construct our bridges, and leave us shortly the richest people on God’s earth!"

Perhaps a novel with this plot could be interesting. There are moments at which Trollope seems to clutch the heart of dystopian fiction in his fist, such as when he writes that “it is not necessary that a man should be happy.” However, he doesn’t seem to know what do with dystopian fantasy.

Or to have an imagination.

In a world in which the elderly are sent off to an institution to die, I expected to see a lot of technology here to help ease them into a state of forgetfulness and easy domination. Or something.

Near the end of the work, there is a peek of what we would consider technology today. A Captain Battleax comes from Britain to put an end to the “Fixed Period” and colonize Brittanula. In this scene, the second lieutenant

"put a minute whistle up to his mouth, and I could see for the first time, that there hung from his the thinnest possible metal wire — a thread of silk […] which had been dropped from the whistle […] and which now communicated with the vessel. I had, of course, heard of this hair telephone, but I had never before seen it used in such perfection. I was assured afterward that one of the ship’s officers could go ten miles inland and still hold communication with his captain."

Whoa. I mean, yes, just look at that description of the “perfect” usage of this “hair telephone!”

This is, according to my own close-reading, the sole description of any technology in Trollope’s futuristic dystopia; this is what, perhaps, has risen up to replace violins everywhere.

Brittanula will fall, though, “because a young boy had fallen in love with a pretty girl,” in true Trollope form.

[Max Berman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trollope's novella is as timely as ever in light of our current partisan politics and confrontation with fanatical ideas.

As it is readily apparent to any Trollope reader that his one foray into the science fiction genre is surprisingly uncharacteristic, the dynamic needn't be over emphasized, as it is probably more interesting to note how the novella is very much in line with his writing in general.

The choice of first person is actually as much of a departure as anything. Failing to recall encountering Trollope doing so anywhere else, a Google search on the topic only brought up his autobiography and this novella "The Fixed Period".

Now, Trollope's third person is a god-like, omniscient chronicler, one who knows the inner lives of every single character better than they do themselves which generally creates the peculiarly Trollopian dynamic of characters meeting each other in context, with the reader knowing everything about them with the effect often being comic in proportion to what they misunderstand about each other.

The first person narrator of "The Fixed Period" is the President. Neverbend of the fictional colony Britannula and in terms of his personal empathy and reading of other characters, he does pick up the slack for Trollope's take you along by the hand guide, as he does seem trustworthy, empathetic and accurate in his observations regarding the other characters but there a muting, if not a total loss, of that comedy of errors whereby people misconstrue each other.

This is a very late work for Trollope and the question of what he gains by dropping his all seeing third person with all of its comic and dramatic potential should be asked. For one thing, it should be noted that in his usual mode, he often grants the reader the benefit of his personal opinion and wisdom regarding his characters and his style when doing so is often pre-Brechtian in that he will insert his thoughts with references and reminders of the story being a story written by an author and intended for an audience.

With "The Fixed Period" Trollope is dealing with a passionate fanatic, President. Neverbend, who believes in the notion of creating prosperity for all mankind by depositing people past the age of 67 1/2 into a kind of sanctuary where they will live for a year before being put to death via opened wrists in a bath while taking opium. He is a founder of his nation which included no old people so that they were able to agree to this idea before its terrors were near enough to sufficiently impress. As the tale starts, his friend, Gabriel Crasweller, a man of unusual good health and activity, who had long ago agreed to be the first such deposited, is coming upon his time, he has a lovely daughter much attached to him, and the president's own son is in love with her. With other citizens concerned in that they would be next in line, and as we learn, the President's own wife against him, he spends much of the book in opposition against seemingly everyone in his colony and, then later, sailors sent from Great Britain to stop the idea from being carried out.

So one benefit of Trollope dropping the third person is that Trollope's own interloping, or judgments, on his characters or work would have been redundant given that the practical, pragmatic, and altogether human reaction of the stories world to its first person narrator and his idea for mankind likely matches Trollope's own reaction precisely.

President. Neverbend's tale is in the form of his own book, telling his own story as something he will leave for future generations so the first person works naturally within this framework and I believe the comedy and social commentary normally derived from Trollope's third person, is transferred to the reader's own reaction to this first person single object, and that they are meant to be guided in their reaction both by plain common sense and the reactions of the book's other characters. His frequent comparisons of himself with Columbus and Galileo are ironic in that those men believed in something that turned out to be true whereas Neverbend believes in something no one agrees with.

One possible sibling in Trollope's work for Neverbend can be found in his novel, "He Knew He Was Right", one his more popular works that he nevertheless considered a failure. He felt his book had been undermined by the main character being unsympathetic and by the main plot evincing less interest than the subplots and secondary characters. The main characters of each book are similar in that they are passionately married to an idea or notion with whom no one else can agree, including the reader. The choice of first person is perhaps used to turn a scheme Trollope thought he had failed with into a success.

With, "The Fixed Period" Trollope's President Neverbend gets to thoroughly explain himself and is convinced of the rectitude of his ideas and the benefits that would accrue to all of his mankind if they were to come to fruition. His ideas though, that of depositing and then ending the lives of elder people, while proving to be unsympathetic to his own colony and the world at large, and the readers of the book too, unlike the main character of "He Knew He Was Right", do not lead to a corresponding lack of feeling for the man himself.

Trollope's great achievement with "The Fixed Period" therefore, beyond the originality of its science fiction which would influence many later works in various mediums like, "Logan's Run", largely can be found in how he successfully presents a fanatical character, whose ideas the reader and no one else can agree with, who is nevertheless so good, genial and benevolent that he is wholly forgiven, again by both the world of the book and the reader, and remains sympathetic. One wonders if this could be achieved via a first person narrative of any fanatical member of any dogmatic party with wrongheaded ideas.

Finally, the book rhymes with the majority of Trollope in that the plot does not fail to concern itself with the settling of young people's romance and their property. It is unusual though in that the usual happy ending, union through marriage of the young people, is not the book's final point and is merely implied prior to the final section as President Neverbend sails for England and can't be present.

Instead, "The Fixed Period" ends with him aboard the ship complaining piteously of his life and future prospects to a lieutenant who he has recently met, befriended and communicated his ideas. Though it be his life's mission to promote his grand idea, he asks the lieutenant whether anyone will even believe that he believes in his own idea and the lieutenant, though in disagreement as to the idea, acknowledges his belief that Neverbend is in earnest. Curiously, this is seemingly no comfort to Neverbend as he qualifies the lieutenant's statement, restates his pity of himself and the book ends but the exchange should be a comfort to the reader. The ending is emblematic of a book that is a master class in showing how people can remain civilized and sympathetic with each other in the face of extreme disagreement. Neverbend might not realize it but the book has subsumed and incorporated his unique existence and ideas into the world at large which has found acceptance and a place for him. This is all regenerative for the reader, validating of civilization itself, and stamps the novella as high comedy.

[Christina Baehr]

I enjoyed this book tremendously, though it is not by any means representative of Trollope's body of work, nor will it ever be numbered among his best. If you are interested in literary curiosities or 19th century speculative fiction, I would highly recommend it, and I found Trollope's fanciful picture of life in 1980 absolutely fascinating, especially as an Australian. Trollope imagines life in a fictional Oceanic country which has obtained a peaceful independence from the British crown, and I couldn't help wonder if he based it largely on my home, Tasmania (which Trollope visited and wrote about).

While most futuristic works of the 19th c take their style from a travelogue, Trollope really just wants to write about people and moral dilemmas (which he is fabulous at doing). The speculative elements are in the background, and not highly developed. The structure is uneven and the cricket game unnecessarily long. I laughed out loud at the black humour in one section, and another part where a man is ready to submit to exile rather than listen to another of his wife's entirely justified bedtime lectures. There were some moments where I felt he was actually covering territory from THE WARDEN, one of his most famous novels, but with far darker themes. It's no masterpiece, but I enjoyed it enormously and it gave me lots of ideas.

[Hal Brodsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is 1986 (100 years after the book was written) and a small antipodel country has become wealthy in part by utilizing the strategy of euthanizing everyone when they turn 68 (after proving 365 days of luxurious care-free living). This way people do not have to suffer the ravages of old age and society does not need to support its less productive members.

So how do people respond in this utilitarian society as they approach age 68?

Anthony Trollope's last book.... he died at age 67.

Points for clever ideas and a deep look into Western European cynicism, ethos, and self-preservation. Negative points for the prolonged steam powered cricket match and lack of suspense.

[Jason Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1882 , this is set in a fictitious British colony that elects to end the waste of old age by eliminating people at the age of 62. Foreshadowing both a prevalent dystopian theme, and the current Euthanasia debate as well as offering penetrating commentary on relations between colonies and rulers, and whether autonomy counts for more than conceptions of ethics this is prescient indeed.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Study of fanaticism, with incidental predictions of the future and an argument against forced euthanasia. AND a good story! Entertaining to think how many sci-fi stories and videos owe some of their ideas to this book. Also apart from the wordiness, unexpected for Trollope.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is Trollope's worst novel. No doubt about it.

It's a futuristic novel set in an imaginary island nation somewhere near New Zealand, an island originally colonized by the English. As so often happens in futuristic novels, the future technologies imagined are, in hindsight, absurd -- steam bicycles, cricket gear (including steam bowlers) that let the sides score unimaginably large number of runs (at least I assume they're unimaginable; I'm not really the person to ask).

But the focus of the novel -- and I suppose this must be true generally of futuristic novels -- is not on the technology so much as it is on society. Trollope imagines a society in which it has become the law that everyone is to be euthanized upon reaching age 68. That is "the fixed period" of the title.

Sounds bad, right? But what makes it even worse for Trollope lovers is that Trollope writes it as a first-person narrative. What makes Trollope great is his narrator's voice, and here he can't use it.

In addition to euthanasia, Trollope's imagined society also cremated its dead, which, although hardly shocking to us now, was illegal in Trollope's England. Trollope was a member of the Cremation Society, which argued for, and eventually won, legalization of cremation. (But not in time for Trollope; he is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, with a plaque in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey.)

But I don't think Trollope was in favor of compulsory euthanasia. By the way, Trollope was 67 when he wrote The Fixed Period.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprising and rather slight book which plays with some interesting ideas. It was written by Trollope near the end of his life and is set in 1980. I found the characterisation a little thin for Trollope and found the whole book rather unconvincing.

[Glass River]

The Fixed Period, the author’s only science-fiction novel, has always been discordantly out of key with what we commonly regard as ‘Trollopian’. In consequence, the book has enjoyed less popularity than the forty-six other works of fiction which gushed from the author’s inexhaustible pen. The gushing had, sadly, almost dribbled to a conclusion by the time of The Fixed Period. He was anything but hale during the writing of this novel. Since 1873 he had been entirely deaf in in one ear. His eyesight was poor. He was grossly overweight (sixteen stone on a medium frame). He had suffered a hernia and was obliged to wear a truss, which rendered him virtually immobile. Cardiac asthma was suffocating him slowly. In late 1881, he went to his local Hampshire doctor with chest pains. He received the dreadful news that he had angina pectoris. ‘I may drop dead at any moment,’ he glumly told a friend. He did not have long to wait – Trollope died in 1882, aged sixty-seven and a half. It was during the months after his diagnosis that he wrote The Fixed Period. Anthony Trollope was not one to stop working hard simply because his heart was worn out.
The action of The Fixed Period is set in summer 1980, on the small former British colony off New Zealand, Britannula – specifically its capital Gladstonopolis (the Grand Old Man of British politics was a vigorous seventy-two, with two premierships ahead of him, as the novel was being written). The mother country has granted Britannula its independence. Under its president, John Neverbend (an obstinate man), it has introduced a law by which every citizen on reaching the age of sixty-seven and a half shall be ‘deposited’ in a college, grimly called ‘Necropolis’, and educated in oncoming death for a year, before being disposed of. The novel delicately hints at how the final act shall be carried out – exsanguination. Classicist that he was, Trollope thought the warm bath, the razor and the cut vein the best way to achieve what Keats called ‘easeful death’. Cremation (becoming fashionable as rational corpse disposal in England) would follow. Neverbend is a lusty fifty-nine as the narrative opens. His best friend Gabriel Crasweller, however, is sixty-six and fast approaching the deadly age. He will be the first Britannulan to be deposited in the college. Crasweller is not at all looking forward to deposition. He attempts to wriggle out of it by lying about his age. This fails. He must go into the dark – it is the law. Things are complicated by a young suitor for his daughter who wants (via her) to inherit Gabriel’s wealth, while another more likeable suitor (Neverbend’s son, ironically) wants to scrap the fixed period.
There are three events in this fascinating but rather eventless novel. Crasweller finally submits to the law. But to forestall this judicial murder Britain sends out a gunboat with a massive ‘250lb swiveller gun’. Britannula is recolonised, Neverbend is arrested and the narrative ends with him on his way to England on the gunboat John Bright (named after the Liberal politician, who was seventy-one years old when the book was published), ruefully anticipating what awaits him when he reaches England. The core of The Fixed Period is not its SF gadgetry, which is unimpressive – steam-powered bicycles and rather alarming improvements on the piano and violin called the ‘mousometor’ and ‘melpomeneon’. Nor is the novel interesting for the love triangle between the young people. Trollope was too old to work himself up about such juvenile nonsense. The power of the novel lies in its meditations on age, and what follows age.
The central event, oddly, is a cricket match between Britannula and England. The ‘Tests’ had begun in 1877 and the antipodeans had proved to be alarmingly good at the game. So much so that in 1882 (as The Fixed Period was published, by happy coincidence) they beat England so convincingly at the Oval that the Sporting Times declared cricket ‘dead’ and ‘cremated’. Thus were the ‘Ashes’ born. Trollope died the same year. He was not cremated.

[Fem (Little Miss Booksniffer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of 'The Fixed Period' is way better than its execution. It follows the endeavours of Mr Neverbend, President of Britannula, a brand new nation near New-Zealand. It is the year 1980 (a hundred years or so after Trollope's lifetime). Years ago, the people of Britannula installed the law of the 'Fixed Period': it was deemed that life wasn't useful anymore around the age of 67, and people would then have to be 'deposited of'. Now, the first 'deposition' will have to take place soon, and when suddenly faced with the reality of their new law, not everyone is so happy about it.

This is a really interesting idea, and while the story is entertaining, it fell flat for me. It explores certain questions about life and death, though I felt Trollope didn't take it far enough. That the depositions haven't taken place yet is not a bad choice - it gives the author a way to dwell on how new ideas are received, and what we find normal - but this also ensures there is no real payoff, and the book mostly rinses and repeats the same thoughts on the Fixed Period-practice. (Personally, I think it would have been fun too to see a society where 'deposition' has been the normal practice for a few years or even a few generations.) My main gripe with the book was that everyone was constantly so damn nice and forgiving to each other, something that surely wouldn't happen if this scenario would play out in reality. Sure, there are a few conflicts, but they are resolved without a lot of fuss or hard feelings. It is explicable - the son and Casterwell are, in the end, not totally against the Fixed Period, Eva is forgiving by nature and knows she has to make peace because Neverbend will be her father-in-law, etc - but it makes for a somewhat boring read.

I was also disappointed with Trollope's (lack of) futuristic vision. Essentially the 1980s are still a Victorian society, with a few steampunky elements (an updated version of cricket - of all sports! -, steam tricycles, telephone-like wires - that one was a good prediction anyway -, long-distance looking glasses and a super-strong cannon) but no major cultural or, indeed, technological differences to speak of. It's quite telling (and, looking at it with modern eyes, a bit sad) that Trollope thought that in 1980, women would still have a fully subservient role, England would still rule half of the world, and people would still travel the world utterly slowly by ship - and that the one major advance would be the idea of forced euthanasia and cremation. Oh well, at least capital punishment was banned in Britannula! I can't blame the time period, since there's many a 19th century author that at least took to the idea of traveling by air, for instance. It just feels like lost potential, especially when the story below the sparse sci-fi elements isn't so well thought-out to begin with.

Right, I'm off - better get my steam tricycle!

[James Askari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curiosity--a fictionalised essay about, or exploration of, euthanasia, distinctive because written in the manner of a Trollopian novel of human situations, where consideration of what characters should do typically falls within a range of acceptable to slightly-less-acceptable, reasonable to slightly-less-reasonable possibilities.

The informing idea is that a colony, a new settlement in the South Pacific, notionally one hundred and fifty miles or so from New Zealand, could not thrive if it had to carry its ageing population. The novel's narrator, the zealot John Neverbend--in his own mind, a conscientious father and husband, and man of reasonable moderation--convinces the populace, made up almost entirely of young people, that it should adopt a rule of a person's life having 'a fixed period'. At 66, people are admitted to a College where they will prepare for euthanasia; on their 67th birthday, in great honour with the thanks of the nation for their self-sacrifice, they will have their wrists cut by the President himself in a ceremonial bath. Though he may be read by the outside world as a butcher, Neverbend understands the measure not just as socially equitable but humane: he is sparing the old the indignity of uselessness, of being a burden. Britain, which granted the remote and self-sufficient 'Britannula' its independence some twenty years previously, cannot allow this outrage to humanity and, in a parody of 'steamship diplomacy', sends in a warship that could blow the country's capital to smithereens to compel its reaccession.

The personal story concerns the engagement of the daughter of the man first slated to die (Neverbend's personal friend, and hitherto a tepid proponent of the 'fixed period') and an officious man who becomes an apologist (for mercenary motives) for euthanasia. This is interrupted by the woman's attraction to Neverbend's own son (a champion cricketer--a game now played with machines over a huge pitch) and--for purposes of plot complication--an English Lord who visits the island as part of a cricket team (in a reflection on the 'Ashes' as it had just been inaugurated). Trollope anticipates little modern technology--not air travel, nor audiovisual equipment as it could be used in broadcasting or very remote weapons systems--and supposes the Liberal talking-points of the 1860s through 1880s (e.g. John Bright's career as a pacifist, parliamentary reformer and possible sell-out) will be the currency of political discussion in his imagined 1980s. Working class enfranchisement and dominance of sports and the arts, and American global hegemony, also fail to figure on his radar.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story that is still relevant

Did you know that Anthony Trollope wrote Science Fiction? I didn't until I read this novel. Written in 1880-1, `The Fixed Period' is set in 1980 in the fictional ex-British colony of Britannula somewhere in the South Pacific. The story is narrated by the President of the Republic of Britannula. President Neverbend has persuaded his parliament to pass a law that no-one shall be allowed to live beyond the age of 68. At 67 people will be taken to the College of the Fixed Period and after a pleasant last year will be put to death by lethal injection. Neverbend is convinced that this will be of great benefit to society by saving the elderly years of infirmity and pain and by freeing up assets for the young. However, when the time comes for the first `victim' to enter the College he resists, which causes much soul-searching and a dramatic chain of events.

Trollope wasn't much interested in imagining the technology of the future - his characters get around on steam-driven tricycles - but he was clearly thinking about how society might change in an increasingly secular age. One thing he did get right was that British cricket teams would still be visiting ex-colonies in 1980 and it is the presence of such a team that leads to Neverbend's downfall. `The Fixed Period' isn't a great lost work of Science Fiction but it does deal with two issues that are still relevant today. Euthanasia, whether voluntary or involuntary, remains very controversial. Neverbend is allowed to make a strong case for his `Fixed Period' law but inspite of his name he does have doubts, especially when his own family take the opposite side. The second issue is at what point do outside powers have the right, or possibly the duty, to interfere in the `Human Rights' policies of other countries? It is impossible to read this novel without thinking of modern parallels and it challenges our own views of the elderly.

[Kaoru · Rating 3 out of 5]

The thing that's often said about authors of science-fiction is that they're writing about the world of today by setting the story in the world of tomorrow. Reading Trollope in our age often feels like the reverse situation. It's as if somebody has written about the world of today by setting the story into the past. You keep forgetting that these are genuine works of the 19th century, that's how contemporary they feel at times. With "The Fixed Period" you get into the realm of the curio; it's Trollope's only science fiction novel, setting the story in our day and age. It's an arrow shooting our heads in a roundabout way.

Unfortunately, however, the book is indeed just that: A curio. Neither the characters nor the themes are developed all that well and it comes across as somewhat bare bones and dry. The topic of euthanasia of the aged doesn't dig deep enough and barely ever goes beyond surface level. There's also the topic of a government clinging to an unpopular and absolutely bogus law, no matter what, despite having flashes of conscience and actually knowing better. There's also a commentary about British colonialism somewhere in there, but it's relatively brief and fleeting, therefore even less developed than the other bits.

Who knows; had the book been twice as long there might have been more space available to weave something deeper out of all the ingredients. On the other hand, I'm not so sure I really would have wanted to stay even longer in this particular world. Reading this might not have given me sense of dread, but it wasn't exactly a comfortable ride either. It's not exactly the type of thing that you'd expect or would want to read of from the King of Wholesome. On the other hand, I'm not exactly sure if this would be interesting to people who come in without any expectations either. Hum.

[Justin Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the Anthony Trollope novel unlike any other Anthony Trollope novel. If you think you know Trollope, think again.
Even his contemporaries didn't think he was serious, but he was.

For a start, it's set one hundred years in the (then) future (the 1980s) in a fictional former British colony somewhere near New Zealand. And from the very outset we're told this society has passed a law mandating the euthanasia of every man or woman once they reach the age of 67. So, what happens as the newly independent nation's oldest citizen approaches that particular milestone?

It has to be said that, as a novel, it's not up there with Trollope's finest. Even for a novella, much of the plot and some of the characters (other than the narrator) are flimsy.

But the issues raised - the economic and social costs of an ageing population, the attendant moral implications, the difference between enacting laws and enforcing them, the relations between newly independent states and their former colonial masters - remain just as relevant today and as intriguing.

Was this purely an exercise in irony on Trollope's part? Has he produced a ludicrously far-fetched scheme, solely to convince us of the opposite? Or is he holding up at least some aspects of these ambitions for our serious consideration?

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in the 1880s and set one hundred years later, The Fixed Period is a fine example of a dystopian future as imagined by Anthony Trollope.

The Republic of Britannula - a fictional island off New Zealand - comes up with a radical idea to increase the wealth and prosperity of its inhabitants by introducing the Fixed Period. When citizens reach the age of sixty six and a half they are ‘deposited’ at a custom built ‘college’ where they reside for one further year. During this time they must set their personal affairs in order before they are euthanised to free up resources for the younger population.

The act is championed by the Republic’s President and passed into law by an act of parliament with minimal opposition. Words like murder and execution are frowned upon: indeed, Britannula has abolished the abhorrent practice of capital punishment. Everything seems to be proceeding to plan until Britannula’s oldest - and one of its most prominent - citizens turns sixty six and begins to maintain that he is only sixty five.