Sophie's World
Jostien Gaarder
Reviews: More praise for the international bestseller that has become "Europe's oddball literary sensation of the decade" (New York Newsday) "A page-turner." --Entertainment Weekly "First, think of a beginner's guide to philosophy, written by a schoolteacher ... Next, imagine a fantasy novel-- something like a modern-day version of Through the Looking Glass. Meld these disparate genres, and what do you get? Well, what you get is an improbable international bestseller ... a runaway hit... [a] tour deforce." --Time
"Compelling." --Los Angeles Times "Its depth of learning, its intelligence and its totally original conception give it enormous magnetic appeal ... To be fully human, and to feel our continuity with 3,000 years of philosophical inquiry, we need to put ourselves in Sophie's world." --Boston Sunday Globe "Involving and often humorous." --USA Today "In the adroit hands of Jostein Gaarder, the whole sweep of three millennia of Western philosophy is rendered as lively as a gossip column ... Literary sorcery of the first rank." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram "A comprehensive history of Western philosophy as recounted to a 14-year-old Norwegian schoolgirl... The book will serve as a first-rate introduction to anyone who never took an introductory philosophy course, and as a pleasant refresher for those who have and have forgotten most of it... [Sophie's mother] is a marvelous comic foil." --Newsweek "Terrifically entertaining and imaginative ... I'll read Sophie's World again." -- Daily Mail "What is admirable in the novel is the utter unpretentious-ness of the philosophical lessons, the plain and workmanlike prose which manages to deliver Western philosophy in accounts that are crystal clear. It is heartening to know that a book subtitled "'A Novel About the History of Philosophy' was not only a bestseller in France, but for a while Europe's hottest novel." --The Washington Post Book World
"A rare bird indeed, a short history of Western philosophical thought from Socrates to Sartre, coyly embedded in the wrapping of a suspense novel." --New York Newsday
"A simply wonderful, irresistible book ... a cross between Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy and Alice in Wonderland." --The Daily Telegraph
"An exciting trek into, the realm of thought, from the ancient philosophers' school of Athens to the Konigsberg of Kant... and a brilliant success." -Der Spiegel
"Intelligently written... an enchanting way to learn philosophy." --Baton Rouge Magazine
"Just as remarkable for its playful premise as it is for its accessibility ... The essential charm of Sophie's World lies in the innocent curiosity of the young

