Sophie's World (Sofies verden in the original Norwegian) is a novel by Jostein Gaarder, published in 1991. It was originally written in Norwegian, but has since been translated into English (1995) and many other languages. Image File history File links SophiesWorld. ... Jostein Gaarder (born August 8, 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and childrens books. ... Philosophical novels are works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the novel is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Jostein Gaarder (born August 8, 1952 in Oslo) is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and childrens books. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Mostly consisting of dialogues between the titular Sophie Amundsen and a mysterious man named Alberto Knox, interwoven with an increasingly bizarre and mysterious plot, it acts as both a novel and a basic guide to philosophy. It also has recurring pro-UN, conservationist themes. In 1999 it was adapted into a Norwegian movie; however, it was not widely released outside of Norway. This movie was also presented as a short TV series in Australia if not other places. It was also adapted into a PC CD-ROM game by Learn Technologies in 1998. This article belongs in one or more categories. ... For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ...

Plot summary

Sophie Amundsen (Sofie Amundsen in the Norwegian version) is a fourteen-year-old girl living in Norway in 1990. She lives with her cat Sherekan and her mother. Her father is a captain of an oil tanker, and is away for most of the year. He does not appear in the book. 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sophie's life is rattled as the book begins, when she receives two anonymous messages in her mailbox (Who are you? Where does the world come from?), as well as a post card addressed to 'Hilde Møller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen'. Shortly afterwards she receives a packet of papers, part of a correspondence course in philosophy.

With these mysterious communications, Sophie becomes the student of a fifty-year-old philosopher, Alberto Knox. He starts out as totally anonymous, but as the story unfolds he reveals more and more about himself. The papers and the packet both turn out to be from him, although the post card is not; it is addressed from someone called Albert Knag, who is in a United Nations peacekeeping unit stationed in Lebanon. The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ...

Alberto teaches her about the history of philosophy. She gets a substantive and understable review from the Pre-Socratic Greeks through Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with the philosophy lessons, Sophie and Alberto try and outwit the mysterious Albert Knag, who appears to have God-like powers, which Alberto finds quite troubling. The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ...

Sophie learns about medieval philosophy while being lectured by Alberto, dressed as a monk, in an ancient church, and she learns about Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in a French café. Various philosophical questions and methods of reasoning are put before Sophie, as she attempts to work them out on her own. Many of Knox's philosophic packets to her are preluded by more short questions, such as "Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?". The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... La Beauvoir redirects here; also see: Beauvoir (disambiguation). ... Lego Group logo. ...

Alberto takes Sophie from Hellenism to the rise of Christianity and its interaction with Greek thought and on into the Middle Ages. Over the course of the book, he covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, and the philosophies that stemmed from them. The Hellenistic period of Greek history was the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Raphael was famous for depicting illustrious figures of the Classical past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... The Age of Enlightenment (from the German word Aufklärung, meaning Enlightenment) refers to eighteenth century in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the seventeenth century and the Age of Reason. ... Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ...

Mixed in with the philosophy lessons is a plot rather more akin to normal teenage novels, in which Sophie interacts with her mother and her friends. This is not the focus of the story, however; it simply serves to move the plot along. As Albert Knag continues to meddle with Sophie's life, Alberto helps her fight back by teaching her everything he knows about philosophy. This, he explains, is the only way to understand her world.

This is laced with events which appear scientifically impossible, such as Sophie seeing her reflection in a mirror wink with both eyes, or actually seeing Socrates and Plato. Being a book based on philosophy, however, it promises—and delivers—an explanation for everything in the end, when Sophie and Alberto Knox escape from Albert Knag. The explanation is that the aforementioned Hilde has been given a book titled Sophie's World as a birthday gift. Sophie and Alberto are merely characters existing within the world of the gift book. Utilizing the newfound philosophy of the book, Sophie and Alberto are able to transcend their own reality to that of the "author", Albert Knag and his daughter, Hilde. This is a perfect example of both metafiction and an unreliable narrator. A wink is an intentional facial expression, made by closing one eye and tensing the facial muscles above and below. ... Socrates (Greek: , invariably anglicized as , SÇ’cratÄ“s; circa 470–399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher who is widely credited for laying the foundation for Western philosophy. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Look up metafiction in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In literature and film, an unreliable narrator (a term coined by Wayne C. Booth in his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction[1]) is a literary device in which the credibility of the narrator is seriously compromised. ...

External links

• Entry of Sophie's World on Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
• Trailer for the 1999 Film on Youtube
• Sophie's World CD-ROM game review at Home of the Underdogs
• Sophie's World - Commentary on a unique bookBRYAN KADLEC LIKES TO LICK CATS AND LOOK AT MANY THINGS