The Coming of Age (Two-Volume Set, Not Sold Separately): Simone de Beauvoir's groundbreaking discourse that once again shatters millennia of Western silence, following The Second Sex

"Old age" represents a fundamental change in a person's existence. The most obvious aspect of this is that "countless things are gone forever." If someone does not regret losing those things, it is because they never loved them. I believe that those who readily accept and praise "old age" have not truly loved life.

—Simone de Beauvoir

We constantly fear death, but we do not become old in an instant. This downhill slope of life descends so gently that one hardly feels its incline. Old age is so far removed from us that its arrival appears eternally distant in our eyes. This distant future seems so unreal to us that Proust said: "For all practical purposes, old age might be the longest-held 'abstract' concept in our lives."

Most people will become old, but few face this new identity early. Nothing is more certain to come than old age, yet nothing leaves us less prepared for it.

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In human history, the history of women has never been treated as a theme, but at least, the condition of women has progressed along an unpredictable yet meaningful main thread. "The elderly," as a category of social members, have never intervened in the functioning of the world. The truth is, as long as they retain their vitality, they can integrate into the group and are indistinguishable from it; that is, they are "adult men, just older." However, once they lose their social activity, they fall into the category of "the elderly," becoming "others" excluded from the group, and even more thoroughly becoming pure "objects" than women.

In the history of Western civilization, apart from Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC) in ancient Greece, no one else has focused on the theme of old age for thousands of years. It is only scattered in specialized academic works or embellished within the lines of literary works. Western society only discusses death, not old age. In their eyes, death transforms life into destiny, possessing tragic beauty, while old age is merely "a grotesque parody of life." From a certain perspective, death saves life while also granting it an absolute dimension; it is death that makes one oneself again, because death revokes time, and time equals the old man, hence the existence of "Father Time," who embodies time in the image of an old man.

In Simone de Beauvoir's view, the deliberate neglect of the issue of old age in Western society can be understood on two levels:

1. External collective social indifference

Human civilization can almost be said to depend on an economy built on the pursuit of profit. Thus, we only care about the human condition when it can bring profit. Once there is no profit to be extracted, we discard people. In the era of capitalism, society more overtly laments that those who have exited the labor market impose a huge burden on those still working in society, and it sugarcoats the cruel reality with the lie that "retirement is a time of freedom and leisure": this society makes the vast majority of elderly people live in such poverty that "old" and "poor" have almost become synonyms.

Having free time has not brought new possibilities for retirees. After finally escaping the shackles of labor, they still cannot exercise freedom, because they are as if condemned to a sentence of idleness and boredom, appearing as scum in the eyes of the social group.

The systemic flaws of society, coupled with the myths and clichés spread by the middle class, have made the elderly "outsiders" to society. As if it were none of their business, those who could make a difference choose to remain silent, and so the problem of "old age" becomes "a shame that our society collectively refuses to face": that is, the elderly "must" endure being segregated and ignored by society.

But a person in the last fifteen or twenty years of their life should not be "unneeded." This situation reveals the failure of our civilization.

2. Internal crisis of individual identity:

Each of us, unknowingly, passes day by day, year by year. Illness reminds one of its presence, but old age, even when some physical signs appear, is vague, so the individual often does not realize they are aging as clearly as others do.

Old age is a dialectic between "my 'being-for-others'" and "my consciousness of myself through others." Sartre's "being-for-others" (être pour autrui) refers to a kind of existence aware that others are looking at us. We become objects due to the gaze of others, becoming "objectified" by them, transposing their subjectivity, thereby feeling uneasy and losing freedom, leading to a sense of existential unease. In my mind, "the old person" is the other, the other that I am for others; and this other is me.

"Old age" is unbearable also because we have always viewed the elderly as a different species. Entering old age means: while still being myself, am I becoming "another" kind of person?

And when we are young, there is a voice in our hearts that denies old age will eventually befall us—though absurd, we can never imagine the relationship between old age and ourselves. That is to say, when something has not yet become real for us, old age is just someone else's business. Therefore, this society can successfully make us turn our backs, allowing the system to exploit laborers, divide society, reserve culture for the powerful, and push the elderly into an "inhuman" condition, preventing a person from living like a human being in their final years.

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The fact is that after a certain age, people experience physical and mental decline. This process is inevitable. After a certain time, our physical activity will decline, our mental faculties often weaken, and our attitude towards the world will also change accordingly.

Why is "old age" important to us personally?

Because it is old age—not death—that reveals whether our previous life had meaning or not.

How did Simone de Beauvoir "On Old Age"?

Like the groundbreaking The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir once again broke thousands of years of Western silence, delving into various concepts of "old age" in human civilization that had never been properly addressed or debated, from diverse perspectives such as mythology, history, literature, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, biology, and medicine. This made the book the first treatise on aging research spanning millennia in time and different countries and cultures in space.

She divides this book into two parts. The first part is an external-to-internal examination, discussing how various human societies—including primitive tribes in remote parts of the world, traditional Eastern countries, and Western civilizations—celebrate the vitality and fertility of youth for survival, fearing the decline of energy and infertility in old age. It elucidates how society and families view the elderly in their homes, and the perspectives of historical philosophers and literary giants on old age. It leads readers to discover how their views influenced the entire Western society and points out how these influences took root psychologically and socially, shaping our stereotypical imagination of "old age."

The second part is an internal-to-external perspective. Simone de Beauvoir meticulously describes the physical and mental torment old age inflicts on individuals, and thereby reveals the passion for life that the elderly harbor, which is in fact no less than that of the younger generations—the exact opposite of societal expectations. This society only knows how to echo the cliché that "life is like the changing seasons or the passing of time, and old age is equivalent to winter or twilight"; this society also firmly believes that after a certain age, people should "automatically sublimate spiritually," serving as role models for others in various virtues, and are not entitled to the same desires, feelings, and yearnings as young people. If he/she does not conform to the image expected by society, they will be morally accused of "losing their dignity in old age." All these myths about old age lead adults to view the elderly as others, rather than their own kind.

How we treat the elderly reflects our societal values

Simone de Beauvoir believes: How a society treats its elderly reveals its principles and purposes.

Our society allows laborers to live, but refuses to let them prove that their existence has meaning. A life like a desert prevents them from embracing a vision in old age, a vision that could give their world in old age purpose, value, and reasons for existence—allowing them to live like human beings. When they despair over their current meaningless lives, it is because the meaning of their lives has always been stolen from them.

This tragic end of life means everything must start anew: this damaging social system must undergo a radical change.

Simone de Beauvoir aims to break the conspiracy of silence with this book, truthfully outlining the plight of "the old" as a group of "untouchables," and describing how they experience struggles on social and personal psychological levels. She wants to let the world hear their voices, and to encourage and invite readers to rise up and change their own futures, because the old are us, and we are the old. After all, if we ignore what we are about to become, we will not know who we are.

Features of this book

◆ Simone de Beauvoir's hidden classic, officially authorized by prestigious French publisher Gallimard

◆ The first in-depth research treatise on the issue of old age spanning millennia and cultures in history

◆ Unmasking the structural flaws that modern society still overlooks beneath the veneer of civilizational progress

Directly addresses the personal psychological dilemmas that threaten one's self-existence and make it difficult to face the onset of old age

◆ Meticulously translated over three years by Qiu Ruiluan, the renowned French translator of The Second Sex

Recommended by esteemed experts (in order of stroke count of surnames)

Wang Congwei｜Novelist

Zhu Weimin｜Chief Physician of Geriatric Medicine/Palliative Care, Taichung Veterans General Hospital

Wu Ruoquan｜Writer/Radio Host/Management Consultant

Hong Zhongqing｜Clinical Psychologist

Hao Yuxiang｜Professor of Creative Writing, National Taipei University of Education / Writer

Chang Hsiao-Hung｜Distinguished Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University

Cheung Chui-yung｜Hong Kong Independent Journalist

Guo Qiangsheng｜Writer

Yang Lizhou｜Documentary Filmmaker

Yang Suo｜Writer

Deng Huiwen｜Psychiatrist/Jungian Analyst

Zhong Wenyin｜Writer

Lan Xuan｜Senior Media Professional/Host of Lan Xuan Time on BCC

Gu Yanling｜Retired Professor, National Chiao Tung University / Former Director, Taipei City Department of Social Welfare / Former Chairperson, Awakening Foundation

出版日期/Publication Date：June 1, 2026
出版社/Publisher：漫遊者文化
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