Sophies World

Jostein Gaarder made his Norwegian literary debut in 1986 with a collection of short stories, followed by two young adult novels. In 1990 he received the Norwegian Literary Critics’ Award and the Ministry of Cultural and Scientific affairs Literary Prize for his book The Solitaire Mystery. Mr. Gaarder taught high school philosophy for eleven years in Norway, giving him a strong basis for writing Sophie’s World, his first book to be published in English. After it’s three-year spot at number one on Norway’s bestseller list, it has held the same status in Great Britain, Germany, and France also appearing on bestseller lists in Italy, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States. In Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder twines the history of philosophy with the supernatural antics of Alice in Wonderland.

The main character is a girl named Sophie Admunsen, the novels namesake. Sophie is fourteen years old, and lives in Norway with her mother and all of the animals in her Garden. She is soon joined by the mysterious Alberto Knox, first through correspond

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Sophie, Alberto, and Hilde fight to stop The Major from manipulating the characters in Sophie’s world. The correlation between the two girls is not revealed completely until the last part of the novel. But when it comes to the world it’s somewhat different. Another aspect of Gaarder’s writing is his ability to paint pictures in the mind. Large concepts, from the ancient Greeks to Freud, Democritus to Kierkegaard, are all explained with metaphors and language that would be conducive to teaching a person of fifteen years, perhaps a wise fifteen years. What we would like to know is how he did it. While the reader is digesting the vast information presented in the philosophy course, they are also trying to piece together all of the odd happenings. Are we merely characters in a Deity’s plot? Gaarder is acting as Alberto in the first half of the story, asking the right questions, posing the right situations, to force us to think outside of our comfort zone. Who is Hilde? What does she have to do with Sophie?

The third main character, who mirrors Sophie is Hilde Moller Knag. ” With the story being as complex and reality shattering, it gives the reader a key to question their own existence. As far as the rabbit is concerned, it might be better to compare it with the whole universe. A pity, if you ask me… A lot of people experience the world with the same incredulity as when a magician suddenly pulls a rabbit out of a hat which has just been shown to them empty.

Sophie’s World is deserving of the highest praise. It was hugely liberating for Sophie, and if taken in without hesitation, also hugely liberating for the reader.

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Approximate Word count = 1480
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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