The Coming of Age

Name: The Coming of Age
Author: Simone de Beauvoir

by Simone de Beauvoir

This is a great classic work on the subject. She wrote it after she wrote The Second Sex . That was a huge survey of gender inequality, and women’s position in the workforce and sexually and so on. Old Age is a huge survey of the state of old age. It hadn’t been done before. There was some stuff from classical literature, but there wasn’t a contemporary survey. Some of it has dated because it’s to do with France in the 1960s and ’70s, but some of it is as relevant as it always was. We still treat old people quite badly, but we live longer, so the problems have changed. She describes how the disadvantaged poor are put in really unpleasant care homes. Exactly that still goes on. People who haven’t got money to look after themselves tend to end up being abused by the state system, which is shocking. The investigations of care homes have been very revealing. None of that has changed, really. There are always people being abused, and now there are more of them to be abused. “In a way, since Beauvoir’s day, things have got worse” In a way, since Beauvoir’s day, things have got worse. We have always prided ourselves on our National Health Service, although the French have one too. Every country has a different system, but I think neither France nor England treat their old people terribly well. Italy is probably better. Cultures where there’s more family living together in old age are better for older people, but not necessarily for their children. It’s hard. It certainly is. De Beauvoir tries to address it in her time, and she also tries to address subjects like euthanasia and assisted dying. France is nominally a Catholic country, so some things were different there. In this country, I deplore the attitude to assisted dying because we know that 80 per cent of people would vote for it. But the people who vote against it have the power.

Recommended by

Margaret Drabble

"This is a great classic work on the subject. She wrote it after she wrote The Second Sex . That was a huge survey of gender inequality, and women’s position in the workforce and sexually and so on. Old Age is a huge survey of the state of old age. It hadn’t been done before. There was some stuff from classical literature, but there wasn’t a contemporary survey. Some of it has dated because it’s to do with France in the 1960s and ’70s, but some of it is as relevant as it always was. We still treat old people quite badly, but we live longer, so the problems have changed. She describes how the disadvantaged poor are put in really unpleasant care homes. Exactly that still goes on. People who haven’t got money to look after themselves tend to end up being abused by the state system, which is shocking. The investigations of care homes have been very revealing. None of that has changed, really. There are always people being abused, and now there are more of them to be abused. “In a way, since Beauvoir’s day, things have got worse” In a way, since Beauvoir’s day, things have got worse. We have always prided ourselves on our National Health Service, although the French have one too. Every country has a different system, but I think neither France nor England treat their old people terribly well. Italy is probably better. Cultures where there’s more family living together in old age are better for older people, but not necessarily for their children. It’s hard. It certainly is. De Beauvoir tries to address it in her time, and she also tries to address subjects like euthanasia and assisted dying. France is nominally a Catholic country, so some things were different there. In this country, I deplore the attitude to assisted dying because we know that 80 per cent of people would vote for it. But the people who vote against it have the power."

Ageing · fivebooks.com