Winter Dreams

A Historical Guide to Old Age
Examines how the elderly have thought, felt and expressed themselves over 2,000 years.
One of Daily Telegraph’s Greatest Books of 2025.Winter Dreams is an evocative history of the ways the old have thought, felt and expressed themselves over two millennia, tracking the experience of ageing through artistic, literary and historical records. While old age is often depicted as ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’, Barbara H. Rosenwein shows that the elderly have always retained their emotional depth and desires. She explores how these have changed over time, as societies’ views of the elderly and of a ‘good’ old age have changed. And through careful exegesis, she allows the elderly, so often absent from the historical record, to speak to us. We live in a rapidly ageing society, yet ageism is rampant and death and dying are taboo subjects. Rosenwein’s book is a finely wrought testimony to the value of ageing and the richness of our Winter Dreams.

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