A cult bestseller that has achieved classic status 90,000 copies of the Dolphin edition sold and 1,500,000 paperback copies sold overall 25 million copies sold in 45 languages Dolphin edition has a special appendix with biographical notes on philosophers Equally popular with adults and teenagers 'a simply wonderful, irresistible book' Daily Telegraph 'an extraordinary achievement' Sunday Times 'a strange and wonderful book' Times Literary Supplement 'a marvellously rich book' Guardian
Jostein Gaarder shot to fame with the publication of Sophie's World. Originally a high school philosophy teacher, he has written a number of novels for adults and children. He is Norwegian and lives in Oslo with his wife Siri. They have two grown-up sons.
A simply wonderful, irresistible book
*DAILY TELEGRAPH*
A unique popular classic
*THE TIMES*
A marvellously rich book. Its success boils down to something quite
simple - Gaarder's gift for communicating ideas
*GUARDIAN*
Remarkable . . . What Jostein Gaarder has managed to do is condense
3,000 years of thought into 400 pages; to simplify some extremely
complicated arguments without trivialising them . . . An
extraordinary achievement
*SUNDAY TIMES*
Challenging, informative and packed with easily grasped, and
imitable, ways of thinking about difficult ideas
*INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY*
A whimsical and ingenious mystery novel that also happens to be a
history of philosophy . . . What is admirable in the novel is the
utter unpretentiousness of the philosophical lessons . . . manages
to deliver Western philosophy in accounts that are crystal
clear
*WASHINGTON POST*
A terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped round its
tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart
*DAILY MAIL*
YA‘From the opening Goethe quotation to the closing discussion of the big bang theory, this is an extraordinary, exciting, provocative book that has been a bestseller in Europe. Gaarder presents a didactic history of philosophical thought as part of a fictional mystery story that both pulls readers along and breaks up the ``heavy'' explanations into manageable parts. Yet the plot is itself a philosophical conundrum, not resolved until the aftermath of a hilarious, disturbing garden party in celebration of both Midsummer's Eve and the 15th birthday of the protagonist, a suburban Norwegian teenager. And even then, the mystery, like the human mystery, is not really resolved, and leaves readers wanting to know more. Gaarder pulls off the difficult feat of blending philosophy and entertainment in a way that will capture YAs' interest and make them eager to explore further.‘Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
This long, dense novel, a bestseller in the author's native Norway, offers a summary history of philosophy embedded in a philosophical mystery disguised as a children's book-but only sophisticated young adults would be remotely interested. Sophie Amundsen is about to turn 15 when she receives a letter from one Alberto Knox, a philosopher who undertakes to educate her in his craft. Sections in which we read the text of Knox's lessons to Sophie about the pre-Socratics, Plato and St. Augustine alternate with those in which we find out about Sophie's life with her well-meaning mother. Soon, though, Sophie begins receiving other, stranger missives addressed to one Hilde Moller Knag from her absent father, Albert. As Alberto Knox's lessons approach this century, he and Sophie come to suspect that they are merely characters in a novel written by Albert for his daughter. Teacher and pupil hatch a plot to understand and possibly escape from their situation; and from there, matters get only weirder. Norwegian philosophy professor Gaarder's notion of making a history of philosophy accessible is a good one. Unfortunately, it's occasionally undermined by the dry language he uses to describe the works of various thinkers and by an idiosyncratic bias that gives one paragraph to Nietzsche but dozens to Sartre, breezing right by Wittgenstein and the most influential philosophy of this century, logical positivism. Many readers, regardless of their age, may be tempted to skip over the lessons, which aren't well integrated with the more interesting and unusual metafictional story line. Author tour. (Sept.)
A simply wonderful, irresistible book * DAILY TELEGRAPH
*
A unique popular classic * THE TIMES *
A marvellously rich book. Its success boils down to
something quite simple - Gaarder's gift for communicating ideas *
GUARDIAN *
Remarkable ... What Jostein Gaarder has managed to do is
condense 3,000 years of thought into 400 pages; to simplify some
extremely complicated arguments without trivialising them ...
SOPHIE'S WORLD is an extraordinary achievement * SUNDAY
TIMES *
Challenging, informative and packed with easily grasped, and
imitable, ways of thinking about difficult ideas * INDEPENDENT ON
SUNDAY *
A whimsical and ingenious mystery novel that also happens to be
a history of philosophy ... What is admirable in the novel is
the utter unpretentiousness of the philosophical lessons ... which
manages to deliver Western philosophy in accounts that are crystal
clear * WASHINGTON POST *
A terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped round
its tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart * DAILY MAIL *
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