7 h 43 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 43 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a nation's proudest reform sets the date when every citizen must die?
In Anthony Trollope's The Fixed Period, John Neverbend leads Britannula, a small island nation near New Zealand. The year is 1980. His great reform promises citizens a comfortable year at a college, followed by painless death at sixty-seven and a half. He calls it protection from the misery of old age.
Then the law reaches Gabriel Crasweller, Neverbend's close friend and one of its supporters. Crasweller's daughter Eva cares deeply for her father. Jack Neverbend loves Eva and rejects his own father's faith in the plan. What looks tidy in a political argument becomes painfully personal among friends and families.
What you’ll discover
- A president certain of reason Hear Neverbend defend his ideal through a narration that reveals what he cannot see.
- Friendship under a cold law Watch an abstract promise of progress become a threat to someone the president knows.
- Love against conviction Meet Eva and Jack, whose feelings challenge the president's trust in his grand reform.
- Comedy with an uneasy edge Find humour in a narrator whose confidence makes his cold reasoning all the more unsettling.
- The limits of progress Explore the distance between holding firm principles and knowing how to treat another person.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy satire, imagined futures and moral puzzles will love this book. It suits anyone curious about Trollope's wit, and anyone who likes family, love and cricket set against a big public question.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A president defends his unsettling law
- Mercy becomes a matter of arithmetic
- The first case is a friend
- Opposition enters the president’s home
- Cricket draws the island together
- The empty college exposes the plan
- Eva questions the president’s true motive
- His own account reveals his blindness
- Kind intentions can shelter cruel certainty
Who’s who
- John NeverbendThe president of Britannula and narrator, who champions the Fixed Period and struggles to apply it to his own friend.
- Gabriel CraswellerA wealthy sheep farmer and Neverbend's closest friend, chosen as the first citizen to enter the college, who dreads the day.
- Eva CraswellerCrasweller's beautiful daughter, who will do anything to save her father and must choose between suitors.
- Jack NeverbendThe president's cricket-loving son, who loves Eva and opposes his father in public to win her.
- Sarah NeverbendNeverbend's practical wife, who thinks the Fixed Period nonsense and cares most about her family's comfort.
- Abraham GrundleA young businessman and politician, engaged to Eva, who speaks warmly for the law and wants Crasweller's property.
- GraybodyThe gloomy curator of the college, who waits alone for its first resident and worries about every difficulty.
- Sir Kennington OvalA young English baronet and cricketer who visits the island and admires Eva.
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The Fixed Period
by Anthony Trollope · 1882
A tiny island's president wants every citizen to depart at sixty-seven and a half, starting with his closest friend.
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In short
What if your country passed a law that no one may live past sixty-seven and a half? That is the idea at the heart of The Fixed Period, a short satirical novel by Anthony Trollope.
The Fixed Period at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 20 min3 h 25 min fast, 5 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 61,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1882by Anthony Trollope
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A young republic votes to end old age
Neverbend begins by explaining the Fixed Period. It is a law under which every citizen of Britannula is to cease living at a set age, so that nobody has to endure the weakness of old age. It was the first matter the new Assembly took up. He was elected Speaker at thirty, and now his own period is close.
His case rests on money and mercy. He claims the very young and the very old eat more than they earn. He counts a saving of fifty pounds for each citizen who departs, enough in his sums to build railways, bridges and navigable rivers. Yet he says the strongest argument is kindness, because nobody can answer the misery of the aged.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1882
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Trollope, Anthony. The Fixed Period. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fixed-period.
Trollope, A. (2026). The fixed period. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fixed-period (Original work published 1882)
Trollope, Anthony. The Fixed Period. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fixed-period.
@book{trollope2026fixed,
author = {Trollope, Anthony},
title = {The Fixed Period},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-fixed-period},
note = {First published 1882}
}
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What is The Fixed Period about?
It follows John Neverbend, president of the island republic of Britannula, who introduces a law that ends every citizen's life at sixty-seven and a half. The story tests the law on his friend Crasweller, and on his own family.
What does the Fixed Period mean in the book?
Citizens enter a public college at sixty-seven and prepare in comfort for their departure before their sixty-eighth birthday. The law sets the age at sixty-seven and a half, so no one lives past it.
When was The Fixed Period written, and is it a true story?
Anthony Trollope published it in 1882, shortly before his death. It is fiction, set in the year 1980 on an imagined island. It is a satire that makes fun of reforms driven by cold logic.
The author
Anthony Trollope
1815–1882 · English Victorian novelist
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) was an English novelist. He was born in London, lived in Ireland for many years, and later returned to England. He worked for the Post Office while writing novels. His books include The Warden (1855), Barchester Towers (1857), and Doctor Thorne (1858). He died in London.
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