Sophie is a 14 year old school girl who receives a letter with a lesson on philosophy in the mail. What follows is a history of the subject told alongside a mystery that could affect Sophie's whole world - who is Hilde, and is she real?
brilliant...
This is one of those books I got as a teenager, started, and then put to one side. Catch-22 was a similar tome, and after trying a second time to get into it I gave up on that one as a bad job. Sophie's World, tackled as an adult, is a more enjoyable experience - it's far too hard going for a young reader. And to be frank, at times it had me scratching my head. The best part of the book was the bits that weren't long treatises on specific philosophers or eras, where Sophie tries to figure out a) who the hell is sending her these mysterious lessons, b) why they have picked her, c) who Hilde is, and d) whether she even exists. I enjoyed the plot for the sheer gutsiness of what Gaarder does with his young protagonist, and these parts really zipped along.
but...
Unfortunately, try as he might, Gaarder's passages on philosophy slow the book down in places. I know this is the book's raison d'etre but still. Sophie's World is not really a great book to pick up at bedtime after a hard day's work. It's a book that you have to take time to dive into and think about later. There's too much info coming all at once though and I did not keep up and take it all in as Sophie does.
briefly...
A great idea for introducing people to philosophy, if only those lessons were as interesting and compelling as the actual plot.
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