Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy

By Jostein Gaarder

Book Overview

A brand-new 30th anniversary edition of the wildly popular (over fifty million copies in print ), page-turning novel about a young girl's exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374266425
• ISBN13: 9780374266424
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 403 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

This is a novel novel.

That is right, this is a novel about the history of philosophy. It was written by Norwegian professor Jostein Gaarder. Gaarder now writes other novels and has a large following. I found it fun to read and intriguing. Some readers may think the ending is a little strange; however, it fits the story perfectly. This novel is used as an introductory point to philosophy. So, it would not be appropriate for those who already have a background in philosophy to dismiss this as sophomoric. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you are already a philosopher, then it is still an interesting novel with an interesting twist. Receiving a mysterious letter in the mail, Sophie Amundson is about to embark on a mysterious journey that is mostly correspondence and may become much more. We get to join her on her discoveries.

So fun

It was very informative and fun to read

Wonderful into to philosophy

This book literally changed the way I looked at the world and everything in it. "Were all just mites on a rabbits fur bring pulled out of a hat!" I first read this book in high school and I remember walking down the street after finish the book. You know how when you first get glasses it's like "wow, the trees have so many leaves i couldn't see before!" Well after i read this, i was thinking "wow, the trees haveso many leaves and I've never noticed how beautiful they are and their place in the world is so inportant" Cheesy right? It reads a lot like a text bookwhile going over the the different philosophies and philosophers, but if you power through those parts, it really is a good book.

Excellent book about philosophy!

I received this book as a gift in 1996. Before I have never heard about Mr.Gaarder but I got caught by the first page and the book did not let me loose till I finished it. Since then I bought several other books by Jostein Gaarder and each one is a treasure! I have just superlatives for this book, it is realy amazing!

Wow

I picked up "Sophie's World" on a whim, where it was displayed on a table near the cash register. I don't know have much knowledge about philosophy, and although I realize this book barely scratches the surface of some very deep thoughts, I still feel that Jostein Gaarder did a stupendous job in making philosophy feel accessible to me. It made me curious to know more, and if that's not the sign of a great book, then I guess I don't know what one is. I skimmed through many of the reviews just now, even though I've already read the book, and I was able to see a general pattern: those that were inquisitive, open to new learning and a new way of considering our existence were wild about this book. Conversely, the ones that gave it low marks and unmercifully criticized the philosophical part smacked of former philosophy major flunkies with severe elitist, I'm-such-an-expert-in-the-field-sniff-sniff attitudes. What most of the low-scorers missed was that "Sophie's World" was never intended to be a comprehensive study in Western Philosophy, merely an introduction to waken sleeping minds. And to say things like Gaarder got Kant's ideas all wrong is, to say the very least, highly subjective (and open to philosophical discussion). And for crying out loud, these nasty critics should learn to relax a little and have a good time with a very "novel" novel. Gads, what snobbery.Read the book and enjoy it for the ride it gives. It's much better than the average schlop that's flooding the market.