Product Description

When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined. A phenomenal worldwide bestseller, SOPHIE'S WORLD sets out to draw teenagers into the world of Socrates, Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel and all the great philosophers. A brilliantly original and fascinating story with many twists and turns, it raises profound questions about the meaning of life and the origin of the universe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2025 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-04
• Original language: Norwegian
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
Fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen finds two questions in her mailbox: 'Who are you?' and 'Where does the world come from?'. This lights a blaze of curiosity in her brain. She soon becomes involved in a tour through Western philosophy guided by a mysterious mentor, Alberto Knox. Originally intending to write a school book for young people, Norwegian philosophy teacher Jostein Gaarder found himself creating a fantasy whereby Sophie and Alberto begin to doubt their own material existence. Why does Sophie receive letters addressed to a girl called Hilde? Woven into an admirably accessible short history of Western philosophy is a mystery story about Sophie, a lively schoolgirl and Hilde, her alter ego. The result is a remarkable book with overtones of Lewis Carroll and Tom Stoppard, which headed bestseller lists around the world. (Kirkus UK)

What if we were all just characters from a book written by Major Albert Knag as a philosophical present for his daughter Hilde's 15th birthday? This is the question that Sophie Amundsen must ask as she tackles the history of philosophy in what begins as a personalized correspondence course for which she never signed up. Coming home from school one day, Sophie finds questions in her mailbox, followed by typewritten pages about philosophy. She also gets strange birthday cards apparently intended for a Hilde Moller Knag in Lillesand, whom she has never met. Through these unusual circumstances, Sophie embarks on the study of philosophy with Alberto Knox - a middle-aged mystery man in a beret - only to discover that she is nothing more than the fictional heroine of a novel (called Sophie's World) about the history of philosophy. Hilde, on the other hand, whom we meet halfway through the book, appears to be a real girl whose father has written a novel entitled Sophie's World. She in turn learns about philosophy by reading about Sophie's study of philosophy, never suspecting that she is merely a character in a book - Sophie's World - written by a philosophy teacher named Jostein Gaarder to teach teenagers the beauty of philosophical discourse. In this long, self-referential novel (to use the word loosely), Gaarder presents philosophy in a clear, cogent way, using Sophie's and Hilde's experiences to illustrate his points. The reader who is expecting something other than a creative textbook, however, will be disappointed. Maybe Gaarder can fool Norwegian youths into learning philosophy, but savvy American kids won't be so easily hoodwinked. Index. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Jostein Gaarder is the author of SOPHIE'S WORLD, a huge bestseller in over 40 countries. He was born in Oslo in 1952 and lives there now with his wife and two sons.

Customer Reviews

A (decent) history of Western philosophy disguised as a (middle of the road) novel
Jostein Gaarder has written a concise history of Western philosophy, disguised as a novel. The good news is that the 2000 years of Western philosophy is well explained, the bad news is that the fiction that he hangs the story around, isn't that impressive.

For a philistine such as myself, whose understanding of philosophy extends to having read Plato's Republic and Matt Lawrence's Like a Splinter in Your Mind i.e. basically quite ignorant, Sophie's World did what I needed it to do: it successfully encapsulated and chronologically presented a sequence of ideas and modes of thought that have come to define a Western, rationalist school of thinking. This was exactly what I wanted from the book and in that, I can unreservedly recommend this work. As a work of fiction, Sophie's World sticks together quite well for the first half of the book but once its' central conceit has been revealed, the story becomes much less interesting. I'm certainly not the best judge of fiction as I don't read much of it at all but this story borders on the overly-contrived (which may be intentional).

Given it's subject matter, there is only so far that the material can be simplified before it loses its' meaning (Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is a perfect example). As Sophie's World involves a series of letters and conversations betwixt a philosophy professor and a fourteen year old girl, the intention is that if she can understand it, then you certainly should. Jostein Gaarder has boiled philosophy down to its' fundamentals about as far as you can before it would become a series of aphorisms.

In short, a successful introduction to all the big names and theories of Western thought (perhaps an update might include a section on string theory), kind of Now That's What I Call Philosophy; however, if you are to purchase this for its fictional facet, then I'd suggest thinking twice.

Proof that you can learn in your leisure!
I read this as an adult and wish it had been around when I was a teenager as well. It appealed to the eternal, wondering child within me and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Whatever its flaws, whether you just want to have fun, be absorbed in an enquiring read or to learn something about philosophy, I reckon you'd read it to the end .. I'll certainly read it again.

Engagingly light
A happy wander around childlike explanitions of key philosopher's and figures through out history. However its engaging and i'm almost half way through - not bad really!
Thanks to Del for recommending it.