The coming-of-age novel will thrive as long as there are people who are coming of age. Jeffers (literature, Marquette U.) examines a variety of works within this genre, finding that the youthful angst of the past may have changed in terms of time, place, and technology, but not in terms of its impact on both character and reader. Jeffers takes on the very idea of and the and why there are so many titles, and works through Goethe's , Dickens's themes of self-cultivation and alternate realities in , James's take on growing up female in and , Forster's growth in understanding of modern morals in , Lawrence's constant remembrance in , and Santayana's reasons for, in essence, calling himself . Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR