Project Gutenberg 2009-09-02 Public domain in the USA. 73 McConnell, James V. 1925 1990 McConnell, James Vernon Francis, Dick Francis, Richard D. Life Sentence Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "Life Sentence" by James V. McConnell is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The story explores themes of aging, death, and the struggle for autonomy within a society that has transformed individuals into perpetual wards of the state. The narrative follows Oliver Symmes, an elderly man confined to a hospital for the aged, where he grapples with his own memories and the limitations of his body, as well as the profound feelings of loss and betrayal stemming from a pivotal crime in his youth. The story centers around Oliver Symmes and his tormented past that resurfaces as he exists in a future society where the concept of death has almost become obsolete. After committing murder in a fit of passion during his youth, Oliver is subjected to a life sentence that leads to his ongoing existence within a hospital setting, designed to prolong life regardless of quality. As he reflects on fleeting memories of love and the vitality of youth contrasted with the shadows of his present confinement, Oliver's struggle encapsulates a poignant exploration of the human condition—the desire to live and the instinct to seek an end to one’s suffering. The narrative crescendos with his futile attempts to escape the clutches of enforced life through self-destruction, ultimately highlighting the irony of a life unfulfilled and the fight against an imposed existence devoid of freedom. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 56306 56316 2024-09-12T16:25:08.018097 2023-09-13T08:16:56.069139 text/html text/html 52642 2021-01-05T12:44:13 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 57626 2021-01-05T12:44:14 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 99776 2024-09-12T16:25:11.584083 application/epub+zip 98804 2024-09-12T16:25:09.437112 application/epub+zip 98738 2024-09-12T16:25:08.568124 application/epub+zip 233205 2024-09-12T16:25:13.141066 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 127425 2024-09-12T16:25:10.991090 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 127459 2022-09-13T18:18:43.090369 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 49241 49140 2024-09-12T16:25:07.787111 2023-09-13T08:16:55.863133 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 49112 2021-01-05T12:44:14 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 18926 2021-01-05T12:44:14 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19067 2024-09-12T16:25:13.271052 application/rdf+xml 12018 2024-09-12T16:25:08.908111 image/jpeg 3375 2024-09-12T16:25:08.737111 image/jpeg 101694 2024-09-12T16:25:08.027108 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia