Why the Perennial Interest in Coming of Age Novels?

What is a coming of age novel, and why is it appealing to so many people?  Let me answer the first part of the question with a question. 

Who doesn't enjoy looking back, at least with a passing glimpse, to our more callow days filled with emotion, hormones, embarrassment, and lots of learning about life?  

Although perusing those earlier years can be a painful experience, for most people it was a time of self-awareness and growth. And it certainly can be again, if we only take the time to revisit those days from the safety of adulthood.

On a personal note, I've been immersed in writing my own coming of age novel.  The protagonist is a new teenager who has to find her way through a morass not of her own making.  Hopefully, the reader will long for her to emerge from the journey as a whole and happy and more mature young person, ready to face anything that life sends her way.

 The effect of my writing this novel is palpable.  I find myself dredging up memories that I would have thought long gone.  My dreams are full of incidents that happened to me years ago, some good and some not so good.  Long forgotten teachers and incidents and memories of home drift through my sleeping mind like ghosts.  It has been quite a journey of my own, an unintended consequence of delving into my own coming of age experience. 

I have included a few coming of age books that I find to be of note. The time tested novel, of course, is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Scout morphs from childhood innocence to the realization of good and evil in people. It is a masterpiece of the first water.

 Have a look.  See what you think.  If you have any to add to the list, please mention them in the Comments Section of this post.

J.K. Rowling Sets Record with Sale of Harry Potter First Edition--All for Charity

For fans of the boy wizard, this could be the most coveted copy of all the Harry Potter books in the world.

A first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that contains author JK Rowling's notes and 22 original illustrations fetched STG150,000 ($A234,815) at a London auction recently. - a new record for a printed book by the author.

Sotheby's said the work, offered as part of a charity book sale jointly organized with the English PEN writers' association, was sold to an anonymous bidder by telephone.  Two bidders ratcheted up the price for the book before the hammer finally came down, triggering a round of applause at the Sotheby's auction house.

 

Rowling wrote many personal annotations, including editorial decisions, comments on the process of writing and a note on how she came to create the game of Quidditch.  She also drew about two dozen illustrations in the copy, including a sleeping baby Harry on a door step and an Albus Dumbledore Chocolate Frog card.

As part of the fundraising event, Rowling and dozens of other best-selling author were asked to "scribble second thoughts, marginalia or drawings" on a first-edition copy of one of their books. 

J.K. Rrowling

A copy of Roald Dahl's best-selling children's book Matilda containing new drawings by illustrator Quentin Blake fetched STG30,000 pounds, while an annotated copy of Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel The Remains of the Day was sold for STG18,000 pounds.  Other participating authors in the charity sale included Ian McEwan, Seamus Heaney, Lionel Shriver and Yann Martel.

In all, the sale raised a total of STG439,200 pounds.  Certainly a good day in the charity business!