''Sophie's World'' () is a 1991 novel by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder. It follows Sophie Amundsen, a Norwegian teenager, who is introduced to the

history of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, religious traditions, and proverbial lor ...

as she is asked "Who are you?" "Where does this world come from?" in a letter from an unknown

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. The nonfictional content of the book roughly aligns with

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

's ''

A History of Western Philosophy ''History of Western Philosophy'' is a 1946 book by British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). A survey of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the early 20th century, each major division of the book is prefaced by ...

''. ''Sophie's World'' became a best-seller in Norway and won the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

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.

Plot summary

Sophie Amundsen is a 14-year-old girl who lives in

Lillesand Lillesand () is municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Lillesand. Some of the larger villages in Lillesand municipality include ...

, Norway. The book begins with Sophie receiving two messages in her mailbox and a

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. In some places, one can send a postcard f ...

addressed to Hilde Møller Knag. Afterwards, she receives a packet of papers, part of a course in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Sophie, without the knowledge of her mother, becomes the student of an old philosopher, Alberto Knox. Alberto teaches her about the

. She gets a substantive and understandable review from the

pre-Socratics Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

. In addition to this, Sophie and Alberto receive postcards addressed to a girl named Hilde from a man named Albert Knag. As time passes, Knag begins to hide birthday messages to Hilde in ever more impossible ways, including hiding one inside an unpeeled banana and making Alberto's dog Hermes speak. Eventually, through the philosophy of

George Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

, Sophie and Alberto discover that they are actually fictional characters in a book written by Albert Knag as a 15th birthday gift for Hilde, his daughter. They also hypothesize that the "real world" in which their story is being written may itself be fictional. Hilde reads the manuscript, but begins to turn against her father after he continues to meddle with Sophie's life by sending fictional characters like

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...

and

Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, ''A Christmas Carol''. Initially a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas, his redemption by visits from the ghost of Jacob Marley, the G ...

to talk to her. Alberto helps Sophie fight back against Knag's control by teaching her everything he knows about philosophy, through the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

, and

Existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...

, as well as

Darwinism ''Darwinism'' is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural sel ...

and the ideas of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. These take the form of long pages of text, and, later, monologues from Alberto. Alberto manages to concoct a plan so that he and Sophie can finally escape Albert's imagination. The trick is performed on

Midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of Eu ...

's Eve, during a "philosophical garden party" that Sophie and her mother arranged to celebrate Sophie's fifteenth birthday. The party soon descends into chaos as Albert Knag loses control over the world, causing the guests to react with indifference to extraordinary occurrences. Alberto informs everyone that their world is fictional but the guests react with rage, believing him to be instilling dangerous values in the children. When a Mercedes smashes into the garden, Alberto and Sophie use it as an opportunity to escape. Knag is so focused on writing about the car that he does not notice them escaping into his world. Having finished the book, Hilde decides to help Sophie and Alberto get revenge on her father. Alberto and Sophie can interact only weakly with items in Albert Knag's world and cannot be seen by anyone but other fictional characters. A woman from ''

Grimms' Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (, , commonly abbreviated as ''KHM''), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm, first publish ...

'' gives them food before they prepare to witness Knag's return to Lillesand, Hilde's home. While at the airport, Knag receives notes from Hilde set up at shops and gateways, instructing him on items to buy. He becomes increasingly paranoid as he wonders how Hilde is pulling the trick off. When he arrives back home, Hilde has forgiven him now that he has learned what it is like to have his world interfered with. Alberto and Sophie listen as Knag tells Hilde about one last aspect of philosophy—the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

itself. He tells her about the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

and how everything is made up of the same material, which exploded outward at the beginning of time. Hilde learns that when she looks at the stars she is actually seeing into the past. Sophie makes a last effort to communicate with her by hitting her and Knag with a wrench. Knag feels nothing, but Hilde feels as though a gadfly stung her, and can hear Sophie's whispers. Sophie wishes to ride in the rowboat but Alberto reminds her that, as they are not real people, they cannot manipulate objects. In spite of this, Sophie manages to untie the rowboat and they ride out onto the lake, immortal and invisible to all but a few. Hilde, inspired and mesmerized by philosophy and reconnected with her father, goes out to get the boat back.

The Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genesis 2–3 and Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Ede ...

# The Top Hat # The

Myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

s # The Natural Philosophers #

Democritus Democritus (, ; , ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, Thrace, Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an ...

Fate Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predeterminism, predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often used interchangeably, the words wiktionary ...

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

# The Major's Cabin #

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

# Hellenism # The Postcards # Two Cultures #

The Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

The Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

# The Baroque # Descartes #

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

# Locke # Hume #

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

# Bjerkely #

The Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

# Kierkegaard #

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

# Darwin #

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

# Our Own Time # The Garden Party # Counterpoint # The Big Bang

Translations

The book has been translated into several languages, including Portuguese,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, English, Hindustani (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

, Sindhi and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

), French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, Chinese, and

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

. Below are mentioned the names and translators of the translations. # Arabic: # Sindhi: Mumtaz Bukhari, # Portuguese: João Azenha Jr, # English: Paulette Miller, ''Sophie's World'' # Persian: Hassan Kamshad, , 1997, Niloofar Publications # Russian: Tatyana Dobronitskaya, , 2000 # Hindustani: Satyapaal Gautam, (Hindi) # Urdu: Shahid Hameed, # Turkish: # Bengali: G.H. Habib, # Chinese: Xiao Baosen, # French: Hélène Hervieu and Martine Laffon, ''Le monde de Sophie'', 1995, Éditions du Seuil # German: Gabriele Haefs, ''Sofies Welt,'' 1993, Carl Hanser Verlag # Azerbaijani: Narmin Kamal, "Sofinin dünyası" # Thai: "โลกของโซฟี" # Spanish: Kirsti Baggethun and Asunción Lorenzo, # Malayalam: K B Prasannakumar, സോഫിയുടെ ലോകം # Indonesian: Rahmani Astuti, ''Dunia Sophie,'' 2008, Mizan # Greek: Αγγελίδου Μαρία, ''Ο Κόσμος της Σοφίας'' # Central Kurdish: # Pashto: د سوفي نړۍ # Polish: Iwona Zimnicka, # Marathi: Smita limaye,

Adaptations

Film

In 1999, ''Sophie's World'' was adapted into a Norwegian film by screenwriter Petter Skavlan. It was not widely released outside of Norway. Kjersti Holmen won an

Amanda Award The Amanda Award () is an award given annually at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, Norway, to promote and improve Norwegian film. The award originated in 1985, and has since 2005 been exclusively a film award (not telev ...

for her role in the movie.

Television

The 1999 film was also presented as an eight-part TV series in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, again scripted by Petter Skavlan. It was also adapted for television in 1995 by

Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is an English film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. One of his early films, '' Bloody Sunday'' (2002), won the Golden Bear at 52nd Berlin International Film Festival. Other f ...

and shown on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as part of '' The Late Show''. This version starred Jessica Marshall-Gardiner as Sophie, Jim Carter as Alberto Knox, and

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949), widely known by the nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a Culture of the United Kingdom, British cultural icon and a prominent teenage model during th ...

as Sophie's mother.

Board game

In 1999, it was made into a board game by Robert Hyde and Ken Howard, and published by Sophisticated Games Ltd.

Computer game

In 1997, it was adapted into a PC and

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...

by The MultiMedia Corporation. The game allows players to learn about philosophy as in the book, while adapting the

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own narrative structure in a way that inherently reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

elements for a virtual world.

Music

English space rock band

Spiritualized Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centred on Pie ...

named their 1997 studio album '' Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space'' after a line in the novel. Chinese math rock indie band Baby Formula's self-titled album has a track called "Sophie's World ()".

Censorship

In the Xiao Baosen-translated Chinese version (

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

) published by Writers Publishing House, parts of the content related to

were deleted according to the requirements of the

Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of Culture (MOC) was a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which was dissolved on 19 March 2018. The responsibilities of the MOC, which were assumed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, encompassed cultu ...

, such as the last 32 paragraphs in the Marx Chapter.

References

External links

Timeline of ''Sophie's World'' references
at Histropedia {{Authority control 1991 novels 20th-century Norwegian novels Metafictional novels Novels by Jostein Gaarder Philosophical novels Philosophy education Novels set in Norway Fiction set in 1990 Works about the history of philosophy Norwegian-language novels Norwegian novels adapted into films Cultural depictions of Baruch Spinoza People from Lillesand Epistolary novels Censored books