The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex
A two-volume study of how societies make woman the subordinate 'Other' and how that position is lived across a lifetime.
Read our takeThe Coming of Age
Simone de Beauvoir
The Coming of Age
A wide study of how societies understand old age and how material conditions shape the lives of older people.
- 1970
About Simone de Beauvoir
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeBeauvoir examines old age through history, anthropology, literature, economics, medicine, and first-person experience. Her central argument is that aging is biological, but the isolation and poverty imposed on older people are political and social choices.
The story, in more detail
The first half studies how different societies have represented and treated old people. Beauvoir moves across a very large archive, and some claims reflect the limitations of the scholarship available to her in the 1960s.
The second half turns to lived experience: the aging body, time, work, retirement, sexuality, family, and the unequal resources available to different classes. As in The Second Sex, she joins bodily fact to social situation instead of reducing one to the other.
The argument
The historical section asks why respect for old age in the abstract so often coexists with neglect of actual older people.
The experiential section examines changes in the body and in one's relation to time, work, other people, and oneself.
The political conclusion argues that a society's treatment of older people exposes the value it gives human lives that are no longer measured by paid productivity.
Why we recommend it
Why it matters
It extends Beauvoir's analysis of socially produced otherness from gender to aging without pretending the two situations are identical.
Where it fits
Read it after The Second Sex or the aging stories in The Woman Destroyed, which provide the clearest points of comparison.
What this book explores
Timeline
1970
Gallimard publishes La Vieillesse in Paris.
English editions
Translations publish the work under the title The Coming of Age; dates and wording vary by edition.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Gallimard
- 1970
Reader reviews
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The Woman Destroyed
Simone de Beauvoir
The Woman Destroyed
Three novellas about women whose established identities collapse under age, betrayal, and family change.
Read our takeThe Coming of Age: frequently asked questions
What is The Coming of Age by Simone de Beauvoir about?
Beauvoir examines old age through history, anthropology, literature, economics, medicine, and first-person experience. Her central argument is that aging is biological, but the isolation and poverty imposed on older people are political and social choices.
When was The Coming of Age published?
Gallimard first published La Vieillesse in French in 1970.
Should I read The Coming of Age first?
Usually not. Start with The Second Sex for Beauvoir's major argument, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter for her life, or The Mandarins for a novel, then return to The Coming of Age.