Sofie's world
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Sofies_Welt%2C_1993.jpg/220px-Sofies_Welt%2C_1993.jpg)
Sofies Welt (Norwegian original title: Sofies verden ) is a novel by Jostein Gaarder about the history of philosophy . The work of the Norwegian educator and writer from 1991 was intended as a philosophical introduction for older children, but it has also found many adult readers. By 2017, the book had been translated into 65 languages, with over 40 million sales worldwide. The German version by Gabriele Haefs has been available since 1993. In 1997, Jostein Gaarder and his wife Siri Dannevig donated the Sophie Prize , an annual international environmental and development prize.
content
One day, fourteen-year-old Sofie Amundsen receives a mysterious letter asking who she is. Stimulated by this, she begins to think about herself and her relationship to the world. In the course of the following weeks she regularly received new letters with further questions and puzzles. It turns out that an elderly man named Alberto Knox is the author of these letters. In this way he would like to subject Sofie to a philosophy course. Each letter is dedicated to an important epoch of philosophy or a well-known thinker.
As the book progresses, Sofie begins to question her supposedly safe place in the world, especially as inexplicable incidents occur that suggest that Sofie's world is not the one she always had in mind. Eventually she learns that she and her surroundings are only part of a book written by a UN major named Albert Knag stationed in Lebanon. He wrote the book for his daughter Hilde and would like to give it to her for her birthday. Sofie begins to think about herself and her life, which she now knows is not necessarily real. Alberto soon made personal contact with her; from then on the philosophy lessons, the content of which are always individual great thinkers, which are dealt with chronologically, take place in his house.
Now the major interferes more and more in the action and Alberto begins to think of a counter-strategy with which he and Sofie want to outsmart the major. On the day of their 15th birthday celebration, the two apparently managed to escape from history. The book leaves open whether they can really escape their existence as fictional people.
Awards in Germany
- Lynx of the month September 1993
- German Youth Literature Prize 1994
- German Record Critics' Prize 1995
expenditure
- “Sofie's World - Novel about the History of Philosophy”, from the Norwegian by Gabriele Haefs, Munich / Vienna 1993, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich ISBN 978-3-446-17347-7 . (63 weeks in 1994 and 1995 at number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list )
- same: Audiobook: 5 CD-Roms, Der Hörverlag, Munich 2003 (year of production: 1995), ISBN 978-3-89940-255-1 .
marketing
In 1999 the book was made into a film by the Norwegian director Erik Gustavson. The film Sofie's World is one of the amphibious films , i. that is, both a movie version and a TV series version were shot.
Sofie's world also served as a template for an audio book , CD-ROM , board game and musical .
literature
- Otto A. Böhmer: Sofie's Lexicon. Hanser, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-446-18914-9 .
- Uwe Englert: Sofies deserve. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon. 3rd, completely revised edition. Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , p. 3.
- Cerstin Urban: Sofie's world. König's explanations and materials , 395. C. Bange Verlag , Hollfeld 1999, ISBN 3-8044-1662-4 .
Adaptations
- Karl-Josef Durwen: Sofie's mirror world . Hamburg 2019 ISBN 978-3-7482-9624-9 .
- Nora K. & Vittorio Hösle : The café of the dead philosophers . Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47574-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Sophie's World author turns from philosophy to climate change , thenational.ae
- ↑ the title only uses the familiarity of the other title in order to be journalistically attached to it; it is an independent philosophy-history work for young people. Only quotations and pages at the end of an article refer to Gaarder's novel
- ↑ no longer available; as an e-book from the publisher (2013)
- ↑ The novel takes up themes and motifs from “Sofie's World” and continues them.
- ↑ Correspondence between an eleven-year-old and the philosopher, in some places reference is made to “Sofie's world”.