Time Enough for Love
Encyclopedia
Time Enough for Love is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

, first published in 1973
1973 in literature
The year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*September 25 - The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet...

. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...

 for Best Novel
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...

 in 1973 and both the Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

 and Locus
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...

 Awards in 1974.

Plot

The book covers several periods from the life of Lazarus Long
Lazarus Long
Lazarus Long is a fictional character featured in a number of science fiction novels by Robert A. Heinlein. Born in 1912 in the third generation of a selective breeding experiment run by the Ira Howard Foundation, Lazarus becomes unusually long-lived, living well over two thousand years with the...

 (birth name: Woodrow Wilson Smith), the oldest living human, now more than two thousand years old.

The first half of the book takes the form of several novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

s connected by Lazarus's retrospective narrative. In the framing story, Lazarus has decided that life is no longer worth living, but (in what is described as a reverse Arabian Nights scenario) will consent not to end his life as long as his companions will listen to his stories.

The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail

This story concerns a 20th-century United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 cadet who rises in the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself wholeheartedly to the principle of "constructive laziness". After the Naval Academy, the protagonist becomes rich by taking advantage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act
Agricultural Adjustment Act
The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a United States federal law of the New Deal era which restricted agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant part of their land and to kill off excess livestock...

, which paid farmers not to farm their land.

The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't

Lazarus tells of his visit as an interplanetary cargo trader to a planet with a culture like that of the medieval Middle East (reminiscent of Citizen of the Galaxy
Citizen of the Galaxy
Citizen of the Galaxy is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction and published in hardcover in 1957 as one of the Heinlein juveniles by Scribner's...

), whereon he bought a pair of slaves, brother and sister, and immediately manumitted them. Because neither has any knowledge of independence, nor any education, Lazarus teaches them during the voyage "how to be human".

The two are the result of an experiment in genetic recombination in which two parent cells were separated into complementary haploid gamete
Gamete
A gamete is a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually...

s, and recombined into two embryos. The resulting zygote
Zygote
A zygote , or zygocyte, is the initial cell formed when two gamete cells are joined by means of sexual reproduction. In multicellular organisms, it is the earliest developmental stage of the embryo...

s were implanted in a woman and gestated by her, with the result that although both have the same mother and genetic parents, they are no more closely related genetically than any two people taken at random. The have been prevented from sexual relations by a chastity belt
Chastity belt
A chastity belt is a locking item of clothing designed to prevent sexual intercourse. They may be used to protect the wearer from rape or temptation. Some devices have been designed with additional features to prevent masturbation...

; but having confirmed that there is no risk of genetic disease in their offspring (described as the sole valid reason against incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...

), Lazarus solemnizes their marriage and later establishes them as the owners and operators of a thriving business. At the end of the story, he reveals a belief that they are descendants of his own.

The Tale of the Adopted Daughter

A short scene-setter written after the style of "The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...

" introduces a planet whereto Lazarus has led a group of colonists now living in a manner reminiscent of the American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

.

Lazarus, now working as a banker and shopkeeper and keeping his true age secret, saves a young girl named Dora from a burning building and becomes her guardian. When she grows up, he marries her, and the two become founders of a new settlement where Lazarus' long life is less likely to be noticed. They are successful and eventually build a thriving town. Because Dora is not a Howard Family member, she eventually dies of old age, leaving Lazarus to mourn her loss.

Boondock

At the beginning of this story, Lazarus has regained his enthusiasm for life, and the remainder of the book is told in a conventional linear manner. Accompanied by some of his descendants, Lazarus has now moved to a new planet and established a polyamorous family consisting of three men, three women, and a larger number of children, two of whom are female clones of Lazarus himself.

Da Capo

In the concluding tale, Lazarus, in a quest to experience something "new", attempts to travel backward in time to 1919 in order to experience it as an adult; but an error in calculation places Lazarus in 1916 on the eve of America's involvement in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. An unintentional result is that Lazarus falls in love with his own mother. In order to retain her esteem and that of his grandfather, Lazarus enlists in the army. Eventually Lazarus and his mother, Maureen, consummate their mutual attraction Heinlein's later novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
To Sail Beyond the Sunset is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1987. It was the last novel published before he died in 1988....

, the memoirs of Lazarus' mother, also describes these
events, suggesting that Lazarus' account here is at best incomplete.
before Lazarus leaves for France.The blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...

 of some editions (e.g. Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...

 ISBN 978-0-441-81076-5) states that Lazarus "became his own ancestor"; but this is inaccurate, in that although Lazarus does seduce his mother, he does not impregnate her; whereas his younger self was already 5-7 years old.


While in France, he is mortally wounded in the trenches of the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

, but rescued by those with whom he appears in Boondock and returned to his own time.

The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

There are also two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and aphorisms not directly related to the main narrative. These were later published independently, with illustrations, as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long is a selection of catchphrases and pearls of wisdom from one of Robert A. Heinlein's main characters . These were originally published as two "intermissions" in the 1973 novel Time Enough for Love. In the context of the novel, these quotes were selected from Long's...

.

Connections to other books

A character reports the fate of the generation ship Vanguard, from Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense" . The two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was also published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback...

, whereby it was found derelict in space, but the survivors (descendants of the characters from Orphans) have adopted a hunter-gatherer lifestyle on another planet.

At another point, Lazarus offers to recount the fate of the Jockaira, from Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children
Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in the July, August, and September 1941 issues. It was expanded into a full-length novel in 1958....

, but another character cuts him off, saying, "Since that lie is already in his memoirs in four conflicting versions, why should we be burdened with a fifth?".

Long also reports the fate of the descendants of the Howards who chose to stay on the planet of the Little People. Some of the Little People alive at the time he returned to the planet harbored the memories of those Howards, including Mary Sperling; but Long's ship reports that "if there is a human artifact on the surface of that planet, it is less than a half meter in diameter".

Reception

John Leonard
John Leonard
John Leonard may refer to:* John Leonard , American literary, television, film, and cultural critic* John Leonard , Australian poet* John Leonard , Gaelic footballer...

, writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, praised Time Enough for Love as "a great entertainment," declaring that "it doesn't matter [that] all his characters sound and behave exactly the same; it's because the man is a master of beguilement. He pulls so hard of the dugs of sentiment that disbelief is not merely suspended; it is abolished".

Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...

reviewed the novel favorably, citing "the fascination of watching the mind of a man whose reach always exceed his grasp but who will never stop reaching".

Editions

  • 1973, Ace, hardcover, ISBN 0-7394-1944-7
  • June 1, 1973, Putnam Pub Group, hardcover, 605 pages, ISBN 0-399-11151-4
  • 1974, Berkley Medallion Books, paperback, ISBN 0-425-02493-8
  • December 1976, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03471-2
  • October 1978, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04373-8
  • March 1980, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04684-2
  • December 15, 1981, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-05490-X
  • December 1982, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-06126-4
  • November 1983, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07050-6
  • September 1984, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07990-2
  • November 1986, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-10224-6
  • November 1994, Ace Books, ISBN 99948-63-95-9
  • November 1, 1994, Ace Books, paperback reissue edition, xvii+589 pages, ISBN 0-441-81076-4
  • January 1, 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-1876-8
  • 1 January 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-1894-6
  • December 1, 2004, Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 0-7861-8961-4
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