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Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophyby Jostein Gaarder
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:One day when Sophie comes home from school, she finds two questions in her mail: Who are you? and Where does the world come from? Before she knows it, she is pondering all the great questions of Western philosophy (from the Greeks to Kant, to Marx and Freud) with a mysterious mentor. But Sophie is also receiving a separate batch of equally unusual letters. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up in Sophie's world? To solve this riddle, Sophie uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined. Review:"Woven into the twist-run plot, the lectures on philosophy frantically approach the 20th century in order to conclude simultaneously with the story framing them. Mr. Gaarder discovers ingenious ways to make the thought of each philosopher pertain to Sophie's — and Hilde's — solution of her personal mystery. A climactic philosophical garden party becomes the novel's most comic and memorable set piece, inserting into this Norwegian book of virtues, with its homage to the Western intellectual canon and its spirit of common sense, a counterspirit of carnival and sexual anarchy....As philoso-narrative, Sophie's World is a world above 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' but a universe below The Magic Mountain. In my view, literate readers would do better to try Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, which is shorter on magic but longer on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly skepticism." John Vernon, The New York Times Book Review Review:"Sophie's World is sheer delight. How I wish I'd had it during my college freshman survey of philosophy!" Madeleine L'Engle Review:"Involving and often humorous." USA Today Review:"Sophie's World [is] Gaarder's history of Western philosophy embedded in a science fiction-like novel...[and I can] understand the unusual enthusiasm the book has generated....[In] an entertaining brainteaser of a novel....Sophie thinks like a Platonist in the early part of the course, like an empiricist in the middle, and like an existentialist toward the end." Books & Culture Review:"Gaarder pulls off the difficult feat of blending philosophy and entertainment." School Library Journal Review:"This entertainingly framed outline of Western thought...concerns the education of fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen, who turns fifteen, and comes to terms with her status as a fictional character, by the end of the novel." John Updike Synopsis:A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Sophie’s World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined. About the AuthorJostein Gaarder was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1952. He taught high school philosophy for several years, before publishing a collection of short stories in 1986 and, shortly thereafter, his first two novels, The Solitaire Mystery and Sophie's World, and several others since then. He lives in Oslo with his family. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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