AI overview
"Sophie's World" is a 1991 novel by Jostein Gaarder that weaves a mystery story together with lessons in the history of Western philosophy. The book introduces readers to major philosophical ideas and thinkers across centuries through an engaging narrative rather than traditional textbook explanations.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Author
- Jostein Gaarder
- Original title
- Sofies verden
- Language
- Norwegian
- Genre
- Philosophical novel
- Publisher
- Aschehoug
- Publication date
- 5 December 1991
- Publication place
- Norway
- Media type
- Print ( hardcover & paperback ) and audiobook (English, unabridged CD & download)
- Pages
- 518 pp
Article
Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy (Norwegian: Sofies Verden – Roman om Filosfiens Historie) is a 1991 novel by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder. It follows Sophie Amundsen, a Norwegian teenager, who is introduced to the history of philosophy as she is asked "Who are you?" "Where does this world come from?" in a letter from an unknown philosopher. The nonfictional content of the book roughly aligns with Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy.
Sophie's World became a best-seller in Norway and won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1994. The English translation was published in 1995, and the book was reported to be the best-selling book in the world that year. By 2011, the novel had been translated into fifty-nine languages, with over forty million print copies sold. It is one of the most commercially successful Norwegian novels outside Norway, and has been adapted into a film and a PC game.