The Midlife Mind: Literature and the Art of Ageing

Description

The meaning of life is a common concern, but what is the meaning of midlife? With the help of illustrious writers such as Dante, Montaigne, Beauvoir, Goethe and Beckett, The Midlife Mind sets out to answer this question. Erudite but engaging, it takes a personal approach to that most impersonal of processes, ageing. From the ancients to the moderns, from poets to playwrights, writers have long meditated on how we can remain creative as we move through our middle years. There are no better guides, then, to how we have regarded middle age in the past, how we understand it in the present, and how we might make it as rewarding as possible in the future. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Prologue: The Incremental Inch 1. Crisis And Grief: The Invention of Midlife 2. The Piggy In The Middle: The Philosophy of Midlife 3. Halfway Up The Hill: How to Begin in The Middle 4. A Room at The Back of The Shop: Midlife Modesty 5. Getting On: The Tragicomedy of Middle Age 6. Perpetual Incipience: The Midlife Gap Year 7. Realism and Reality: The ‘Middle Years’ 8. ‘The Years That Walk Between’: Midlife Conversion 9. Lessons in Lessness: Midlife Minimalism 10. From The Prime of Life to Old Age: How to Survive The Menopause 11. Streams of Consciousness: Middle Age in A New Millennium Epilogue: The End of The Middle References Further Reading Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index