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Sophie's World

A Novel About the History of Philosophy

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Sophie's World

By: Jostein Gaarder
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

One day, 14-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find two notes in her mailbox, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?"

From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning - but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

A pause-resisting novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Sophie's World has fired the imagination of listeners all over the world, having been translated into 45 languages and with over 20 million copies in print.

©1991 H. Aschelhoug and Co. (W. Nygaard), Oslo. Translation 1994 Paulette Moller (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC World Literature Middle Ages

Critic Reviews

"Gaarder pulls off the difficult feat of blending philosophy and entertainment in a way that will capture [young adults'] interest and make them eager to explore further." (School Library Journal)
"First, think a beginner's guide to philosophy....Next, imagine a fantasy novel - something like a modern-day version of Through the Looking Glass. Meld these disparate genres, and what do you get? Well, what you get is an improbable international bestseller...[A] tour de force." (Time)
"Sophie's World is sheer delight. How I wish I'd had it during my college freshman survey of philosophy!" (Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time)
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I liked the book as I learnt a lot about philosophy in very easy language but I didn’t like the fact that writer has a bias about religious and god.

Very good narration

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I think everyone needs to hear the history of philosophy in this way but honestly what is up with the garden party at the end? I won’t say anymore.

Must read for everyone!

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Up there amongst the best books I have ever read. "Sophie at my library

A Guide for the Evolution of Thought

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I got this book in hard copy to reference in further research, as this is philosophy 101 nestled in a story.

I had to refer to the book to figure out what was going on in a couple of sections because the file jumped.

In one instance it missed 3 lines and that changed the whole context because they had moved in those lines.

In another the file jumped forward a chapter and then jumped back to where it had jumped from.

Filed a bug report but yet to be resolved

Buggy file

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Sophie’s World would be a great book made compulsory in all schools!
What a beautiful insight into all the great philosophical leaders of this life time.

Life Changing Read

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Educational and unique, kept me wanting to know what happened next. The narrator was good too.

Great listen

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Great book to undertand philosophy...
At school they ask to read it, never passed the greeks... Now 20 yrs later I finished the audiobook and understood a great deal of humanity wisdom.

Now i have more questions and a system to keep making them as to look for an answer.

Intro to philosophy

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I love this book but the narrator's Sophie voice is really off-putting, nothing like a man speaking like a little girl. Also there is a chunk of the story missing at the end of chapter 7 (about 5 minutes from the end) which is really jarring.

Missing a bit in chapter 7

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Really easy to listen to and not over dramatic. Everyone should listen to/read this book at least once in their lives.

Great story, well read

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This is a very clever story of philosophy through two characters and takes you through the history of philosophy

a great peace of story telling and introduction to philosophy and it's history

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