The Prime of Life

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Pty Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

La Force de l'Âge first published in France 1960 Copyright © 1960 Librairie Gallimard, 1960

This translation first published in the U.S.A. 1962 Published in Great Britain by André Deutsch and Weidenfield & Nicholson 1962 Published in Penguin Books 1965 Translation Copyright © The World Publishing Company, 1962

Made and printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Co., Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk London, Reading and Fakenham Set in Monotype Fournier

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher’s consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published