Book Review on Sophie's World

Book: Sophie's World

Author: Jostein Gaarder

Translator: G.H. Habib

Publishers: Swandesh

Genre: Philosophical Novel

Page: 540

Price: 600

" Sophie's World: A Thrilling Journey of the History of Philosophy "

Jostein Gaarder is a famous Norwegian writer who was born on 8 August 1952 at Oslo, Norway. He had been a teacher of high school in Norway and written many novels and short stories. He has also written for children and often writes on the perspective of children and their way of exploring the world. His most renowned work is Sofies Verden or Sophie's World. He has many incredible writings like Through a Glass, The Christmas Mystery, The Frog Castle, Maya etc.

Sophie Amundsen is a fourteen years old Norwegian girl who lives with her mother and going to turn into 15 soon. One day she found two letters and a postcard addressed to Hilde Moller Knag. The two letter contains two strange questions." Who are you? Where does the world came from?". The letters came from a mysterious philosopher named Alberto Knox. From these two questions, a new period started into Sophie's life. She became a student of an old philosopher without the knowledge of her mother. Her lessons start from pre-socrates philosophers to Darwinism and modern philosophy. She gets to know all the ideas and philosophers of Western Philosophy. She gets to know about almost every western philosophers like Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Jean Paul Sartre, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Karl Marx etc and many eras like Romantic,  Renaissance, Neo platonism etc. All this lessons were at first taught by some letters, then by his dog, Hermes' and at the end by Alberto Knox himself appears. A question after question was presented in front of Sophie and then solving them one by one to teach her. In this journey, she gets many postcards which are sent to Hilde Moller Knag from a military person named Albert Knag who was doing his duty at Lebanon. Even Albert Knag interrupts in her learning by controlling many events like presenting Red riding hood in real or making Hermes, the dog of Albert Knox, speak or creating environmental challenges and other unusual things. But the questions are, Who is Alberto Knox? Why is he teaching Sophie philosophy? Who is Albert Knag? How can he control or interrupt in Sophie's life? Who is Hilde Moller Knag? Why are her postcards coming to Sophie? What is the end of this matter? To know these things, the book must be read.

The flow of the writing is very smooth. Before talking about this book, a famous quote by Sir Francis Bacon comes to mind that " Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested". Sophie's World is a book that should be tasted gradually and the depth of the book should be understood properly. In another word, it should be assimilated. It is a very important book for those who want to know about philosophy and the history behind it. Generally, Philosophy is a boring subject. But in this book, the reader will always go through a thrill while reading the book. It will be rolercoaster ride for the readers. There will be a thirst of knowing what will happen in the next chapter everytime after finishing a chapter. It is a complete package of thrill, knowledge, history and philosophy. Its a life changing book. As the main copy is written in Norwegian language, I had to read the Bangla translated one. The translation was very good and an excellent work done by G.H. Habib. After reading it, it is hardly believable that it is a translated book. To know philosophy, everyone must read this book. It can be said that Philosophy can not be explained more easily by any other book than Sophie's World. Once the book is finished, the reader who read this book will have a pile of satisfaction. His knowledge will be enriched with more information. It can be stated that the goal of the author has been accomplished perfectly. In a word, The book, Sophie's World, will increase the knowledge and nourish the soul of a reader.