6 h 36 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 36 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every machine that makes life easier also brings a new nuisance?
In The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life, Albert Robida imagines a society where electricity powers daily life. Flying vehicles fill the skies, devices crowd the streets, and invention seems to reach everywhere. This future dazzles, but it also wears people down. The question is not simply what technology can do, but what living with it feels like.
First published in 1892, this science fiction satire looks ahead to the middle of the twentieth century. Robida explores his imagined society through crowded pictures and dry jokes. He delights in invention without ignoring its irritations. Rather than a tightly plotted adventure, the book offers a busy view of a world where progress keeps bringing fresh complications.
What you’ll discover
- Electricity at the center Explore an imagined society where one force shapes the rhythms of everyday life.
- Skies crowded with invention Look up at flying vehicles, then down at streets packed with devices.
- The nuisance of progress Enjoy the dry humor of a future whose conveniences bring their own troubles.
- A satirist's crowded world Discover pictures full of machines, crowds, and the bustle of an electric society.
- Delight with a sting Follow Robida's pleasure in invention alongside his sharp sense of its costs.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like inventive satire, early visions of the future, and comedy about families, marriage and gadgets. It suits readers who love period illustration.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A storm of loose current opens 1955
- A great inventor scolds his son from afar
- A wrong connection brings two strangers together
- Madame Lacombe schemes and a phonograph takes notes
- An engagement journey becomes a plot
- A national park keeps the old world alive
- Army games at Chateaulin show how war has changed
- A new house, a new aristocracy and grand schemes
- A grand party where the recordings catch cold
- Themes of progress, tired bodies and tangled loves
- How the book is told and what to watch for
Who’s who
- Georges LorrisA cheerful artillery officer and the inventor's son, who disappoints his father by loving poetry and by wanting to marry for love.
- Philox LorrisA famous, hurried inventor who runs vast factories and wants a scientific heir, and plans his son's marriage like an experiment.
- Estelle LacombeA shy student engineer, gentle and clever, who freezes at examinations and hopes to earn her diploma and keep Georges.
- Madame LacombeEstelle's talkative mother, who misses Paris, loves hats and bargains, and schemes to see her daughter marry well.
- SulfatinPhilox's secretary and a medical engineer said to be made in a laboratory, who is ordered to spoil the romance but pursues an actress.
- Adrien La HeronniereA rich businessman worn out by overwork, rebuilt by Sulfatin under a costly contract, who wants his health and his share.
- Arsene des MarettesA powerful politician who leads the men's league and writes a history of the troubles women cause, while haunted by his wife.
- GrettlyThe Lacombes' country maid, terrified of machines in the city and happiest in the quiet park of Brittany.
Formats and delivery
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- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Il ventesimo secolo: la vita elettrica
by Albert Robida · 1892
An electric storm connects a Paris engineer with a frightened girl, but his father objects.
Challenging5–10 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
What if one slip at a power station could turn the sky into a weapon, and a wrong telephone connection could change two lives? The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life opens on 12 December 1955, when a runaway electric storm sweeps across western Europe and a young man in Paris finds himself looking at a frightened girl in a Swiss chalet.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A storm of loose current opens 1955
The story begins with a ministry in command of the weather. When snow piles up over France, officials order a thaw by electrical means, and a great electric reservoir does the work in under five hours. Storms are moved away from cold regions and rain is sent to deserts.
The narrator calls electricity the Great Slave. It lights, heats, carries voices around the globe and drives the factories. But the slave has its revolts. One careless employee at a power station lets a leak grow into a full storm called a tournade.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1892
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Robida, Albert. The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twentieth-century-the-electric-life.
Robida, A. (2026). The twentieth century: The electric life. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twentieth-century-the-electric-life (Original work published 1892)
Robida, Albert. The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twentieth-century-the-electric-life.
@book{robida2026twentieth,
author = {Robida, Albert},
title = {The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-twentieth-century-the-electric-life},
note = {First published 1892}
}
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What is The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life about?
It follows Georges Lorris and Estelle Lacombe, who meet through a telephone screen in 1955 while his scientist father tries to arrange another match. Along the way it satirises electric technology, war, medicine, politics and the new rich.
Who is Sulfatin in the book?
Sulfatin is the secretary and medical engineer of Philox Lorris. Rumour says he was made in a laboratory, free of inherited traits. He is told to break up the lovers but gets distracted by an actress.
What is the Voyage of Engagement?
It is an imagined custom in the book. Engaged couples travel together with a chaperone before signing the contract, so they can test their compatibility and part without scandal if they do not suit.
The author
Albert Robida
1848–1926 · French illustrator and novelist
Albert Robida was a French illustrator and writer born in Compiègne in 1848. He worked in Paris and wrote and illustrated books as well as contributing drawings to periodicals. His novels include The Twentieth Century (1883) and The Twentieth Century: The Electric Life (1890). He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1926.
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