About this title: 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 ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Date Published: 1996-03-04
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. Book is good condition. Light wear, some creasing, edge and corner wear. Pages are clean and Tight. Picture available upon request. Previous owner name inside. Desc: Wanting to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe isn't the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book's enormous popularity has demonstrated. A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery ... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. 1996-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Very Good; 1996. 1857992911. Almost like new condition. Very lightly handled.; Softcover; Phoenix/Orion House; London; Unknown Printing; 8vo 8"-9" tall; 436 pages; , read more
Description: Acceptable. Ships from the UK. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Acceptable. *** Expect to receive a well read copy-The condition of the book will be readable, perhaps with heavy creasing and some damage. You wouldn't want to give it as a present-Dispatched in padded packaging. ** UK SELLER-Get it in days not weeks ** read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Acceptable. Reading Copy Only-Expect Signs Of Wear, And Perhaps A Little Damage *** Expect to receive a well read copy-The condition of the book will be readable, perhaps with heavy creasing and some damage. You wouldn't want to give it as a present-Dispatched in padded packaging. ** UK SELLER-Get it in days not weeks ** read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Acceptable. Well Read? Expect Some Heavy Creasing, Some Wear And Maybe A Little Damage *** Expect to receive a well read copy-The condition of the book will be readable, perhaps with heavy creasing and some damage. You wouldn't want to give it as a present-Dispatched in padded packaging. ** UK SELLER-Get it in days not weeks ** read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. Some tanning EXCELLENT value for money and ready for dispatch. Delivery usually within 3/5 days. Our reputation is built on our Speedy Delivery Service and our Customer Service Team. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781857992915ISBN:1857992911
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
"The philosophy teacher, Alberto Knox, probably a literary stand-in for the author himself, laments that he knows of no good philosophy book for young people. Sophie's World is supposed to be that book. Written by a teacher of high school philosophy, written about a teenage girl who is abruptly drawn into a beginner's course in philosophy, this book doesn't risk letting you forget its project: THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT PHILOSOPHY.
So let's judge it at that. Is it a good book of philosophy? Yes. It provides a solid summary of the dominant strains of human philosophical thought from the ancients through the Twentieth Century. And it isn't too detailed to follow, which is important, I guess, if you're going to cram a couple millennia's worth of ideas into less than 600 pages. The bulk of the book is written in dialogue -- Alberto, the teacher, explains, and Sophie, the student, listens. From time to time she makes snappy student-like comments ("How stupid! We know now that's not true...") and asks exactly the questions Alberto needs her to ask to transition between each philosopher's main points. Sophie is a keen student -- the kind I would have loved to have (but never exactly did have) in my freshman English courses. Anyway, if you're a teacher of philosophy and are looking for a text to supplement your class, you needn't look farther than Sophie's World. The book even makes a convenient pivot at the halfway mark -- at the threshold to the Enlightenment -- that could smartly divide your philosophy course into two semesters. First semester: Sophie studies philosophy. Second semester: Sophie realizes she's a character in a book about philosophy. Cute, no?
The book is an adequate basics course in philosophy. Fine. But is it a good "Novel About the History of Philosophy", as its subtitle advertises? No. As a "novel", particularly a novel aimed at the teenage audience, it is a horror: preachy, stylistically repetitive, and often flat-out boring. The existential/meta sub-plot and the introduction of the character Hilde enliven the last 200 pages, but to reach that point you first have to plod through the tedious 300 preceding pages.
You may want to fix yourself a nice pot of coffee before you set in on this one. If you don't, you -- like Hilde -- may jump awake in the middle of the night to the sound of Sophie's World slipping off your chest and onto your bedroom floor."
"I enjoyed the book immensely. I studied basic philosophy in college so I soon became aware that many philosophers were left out and whole era's were glossed over in this book. You know, that's OK. One - It's not a text book and two - It's NOT a text book!
The stories are separate and finally come together in a fairly predictable way. It is a bit didactic, but imagine yourself a very bright, curious, thoughtful and sensitive 14, 15 or 16 year-old struggling with the usual thoughts and feelings of angst and hormones and loneliness and you stumble onto this book and identify with the character (or at least like her) and suddenly your not the only one thinking these thoughts or dreaming these ideas. They aren't being forced on you by a teacher, but are shared through a book. You are not alone, there are entire schools of thought written about these thoughts and feelings. For that child is this book written. So he or she can then explore what they found in the pages of this book and see where it takes them. It's not a textbook, it's Alice's potion or Neo's pill. To me, that is worthy of 5+ stars any day of the week."
"It took me two months to get through this 500-page book. I can rationalize the reasons thusly:
- I was busy.
- I took time to absorb the content of the book. Instead of rushing through it, I let each chapter sink in before I moved on.
But that's, you know, rationalizing. Here's the real reason: It's not very good. Okay, wait, that's not fair. Let me start again.
Sophie's World is, as the full title suggests, a "Novel about the history of philosophy." The idea is to present that history as a narrative, featuring a 14-year-old girl named Sophie and her philosophy teacher, Alberto Knox. There are two major premises for the existence of this book:
1. "He who cannot draw on 3,000 years is living hand-to-mouth." This quote by Goethe illustrates that if one is to understand one's world, one needs to understand the history of that world. You could also say "He who does not understand the past is condemned to repeat it." As you will.
2. There is not a worthwhile introductory Philosophy text for young readers. Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy might be a bit much for some people. While the "for young people" part of this premise is spelled out in the text, it's clear that anybody, regardless of age, needs an accessible survey of the history of philosophy if one is to understand one's world.
So enter Sophie's World. It's written in a very light, young-adult way with short sentences and simple language. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you're after. This aspect grated on me initially, before I actually realized that it's geared for ease of use, as it were.
There are two aspects to this book, since it bills itself as a double-header: it's both a novel and a history. It's fiction and non-fiction. It's entertainment and education. It's tough to combine these things. It's like writing (and reading) two books at once. So, in a sense, I need to review it twice. At once.
Sophie's World: The Novel Remember I said "It's not very good?" I was talking about the novel/fiction/entertainment half of the book. Here's the plot in a nutshell: Sophie begins getting letters from a stranger. These letters form the text of a correspondence course in philosophy. Sophie learns and grows and begins to think about her world differently.
Great, right? The problem is that a story needs a conflict. This is story-writing 101. At first, you're intrigued because it's a little weird and creepy that Sophie should - out of the blue - begin receiving a course in philosophy from a perfect stranger. But absurdly, she just rolls with it and takes it as it comes.
For the first 250 pages or so, nothing happens, story-wise. Sophie gets a new letter. She reads it. She meets the weirdo, they talk. The entire thread of "plot" is just a way to get from one philosophy lesson to the next, and you find yourself discarding the "story" bits and jumping right into the "philosophy" bits.
It's only after the halfway point that a real literary conflict arises and this book starts to hold its own as a novel. Here's the proof: it took me 8 weeks to read the book, but 7 of those weeks were getting through the first half. I blazed through the second half because things were actually happening.
Sophie's World: The History As a history, the book fares much better. As an introduction to philosophy, or even a refresher survey, it excels. Gaarder, through the character of Alberto Knox, is a superb teacher.
The history hits all the high points of philosophy, starting with the Greeks and moving forward all the way to 20th century existentialism, ending with a brief introduction to the universe (Big Bang, stuff like that).
Obviously, one cannot expect in-depth coverage of any particular subject or philosopher, but there's enough information presented at each stop along the way that a reader can identify what particular aspects they might want to explore further through other channels.
The history is primarily concerned with western philosophy. While it touches sometimes on eastern knowledge, it's only in illustration of particular cases where an eastern thought directly affected a western idea.
Conclusion Read Sophie's World, even if you think you already what you need to know about the world we're living in. And especially if you don't.
Just be warned: approach this book as a light-hearted textbook, not as an information-heavy novel. Even without the trappings of Sophie's story, the history of philosophy is a fascinating subject, because it's the history of us."
"The two things this book has going for it are: the plot and narrative frame are original and creative, and the story is more informative than most.
The basic premise is that a 14-year-old Norwegian girl embarks on a correspondence course with a philosopher, and he teaches her the major points of Western philosophy, from the ancient Greeks up until the existentialists. What makes the narrative structure more original than your average novel is that everything becomes very meta and self-referential towards the end, when it comes to light that the girl and the teacher are not what they appear to be. The book is somewhat postmodern in this respect, but brought down to a level suitable for young adult readers.
As far as the story being informative -- by the end of the book, I had learned a lot about trends in the history of philosophy, as well as the major ideas of each major philosopher's project, so in that respect Sophie's World was useful and educational.
However, the book was weighed down by several elements of the story that a good editor could have foreseen and cut out. In general the author devotes too much energy to trivial details, which ultimately results in him writing a 500 page novel that could have been improved by being merely a 300 page novel. On top of that, Gaarder is not adept at the mystery genre, but tries to make this book a mystery story anyway. Sophie is under-characterized and has several unnecessary flaws that contribute nothing to the story and only serve to make the reader dislike her. The man who teaches Sophie philosophy is condescending, patronizing, and pedantic.
Throughout the entire story, I found it very unrealistic that no one else thought that it was untoward or creepy that a 40-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl were alone together for hours in his house several days a week. Sophie's mother was very curious about this man, but she never forbade Sophie from seeing him or asked Sophie if everything was all right, and she only met him after the correspondence course had been going on for several months. Sophie was ditching schoolwork and family to be with this man and was totally obsessed with him. He remained totally in control throughout the whole story and commanded her in a way that made me uncomfortable at times. It seems that Gaarder would have been uncomfortable having the philosophy teacher be female -- Gaarder himself used to be a philosophy teacher, and so he probably found it more comfortable to have the character representing him be the same sex as him -- but he was too squeamish to confront the realities of such a socially suspect relationship, and I found that irresponsible of him, especially in a book geared towards young adults.
My other major criticism of the book is that it deals entirely with Western philosophy and only the dead white men of Western philosophy, at that. Gaarder tries to compensate for this by having Sophie be his mouthpiece for feminism, but not only do I find it highly unlikely that a 14-year-old girl would take up arms about women's rights the way she did, but I also found most of her comments to be the kind of canned, stereotypical comments that a male who didn't know much about feminism would assume a feminist would say.
My one final thought will be to say that if you read this book (and you should only read it if you have nothing better at hand), pay attention to the role of motherhood and fatherhood in the story. Although the book is not about mothers and fathers, parents play a large role in the characters' lives, and the way Gaarder portrays mothers as meddling, clueless, domestic drones and fathers as intelligent, authoritative (and absent) heroes says more about Gaarder's own life than I think he intended it to."
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