The Coming of Age

by Simone de Beauvoir, Patrick O'Brian

Overview

As the definitive study of the universal problem of growing old, The Coming of Age is "a brilliant achievement" (Marc Slonin, New York Times).

What do the words elderly, old, and aged really mean? How are they used by society, and how in turn do they define the generation that we are taught to respect and love but instead castigate and avoid? Most importantly, how is our treatment of this generation a reflection of our society's values and priorities?

In The Coming of Age, Simone de Beauvoir seeks greater understanding of our perception of elders. With bravery, tenacity, and forceful honesty, she guides us on a study spanning a thousand years and a variety of different nations and cultures to provide a clear and alarming picture of "Society's secret shame"—the separation and distance from our communities that the old must suffer and endure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393314434
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/1996
Edition description:	1st American Edition
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	191,974
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Simone de Beauvoir is the author of The Second Sex and the winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's highest honor, for The Mandarins.

One of our greatest contemporary novelists, Patrick O’Brian is the author of the twenty volumes of the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series, as well as many other books, including Testimonies, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore, and biographies of Joseph Banks and Picasso.

Editorial Reviews

....De Beauvoir reports movingly on the predicament of the aged in the modern world, whether as the result of poverty, illness or enforced idleness, within the family, at work, in institutions and in society at large. -- The New York Times Books of the Century

Charles McGrath