En compagnie de Sophie Amundsen, le lecteur est initié par le détour de la fiction romanesque aux grands événements et figures de la pensée occidentale : Socrate, Platon, Aristote, le Moyen Age, la Renaissance, Spinoza, Hegel, Marx, Freud, le post-modernisme, entre autres.
"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a de plus important dans la vie ?
Tous les hommes ont évidemment besoin de nourriture. Et aussi d'amour et de tendresse. Mais il y a autre chose dont nous avons tous besoin : c'est de savoir qui nous sommes et pourquoi nous vivons."
Tout commence le jour où Sophie Amundsen, une jeune fille de quinze ans, trouve dans sa boîte une lettre qui lui est adressée, et sur laquelle n'est inscrite qu'une seule phrase : "Qui es-tu ?". Une seconde enveloppe lui parvient, et à l'intérieur un nouveau petit mot : " D'où vient le monde ?". L'expéditeur de ces lettres reste un mystère, mais les questions posées intriguent Sophie. C'est le début d'une étrange correspondance qui va plonger la jeune fille en quête de réponses dans une longue visite des principales figures de la philosophie...
Ce roman initiatique a conquis des millions de lecteurs à travers le monde. Sans doute parce que
Le monde de Sophie ne donne pas de réponses pré-fabriquées mais parce qu'il pose des questions, de vraies questions.
"Jostein Gaarder réussit à maintenir le suspense d'un bout à l'autre et à concilier, avec art, intrigue romanesque et initiation philosophique"
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Table des matières :
Le jardin d'Eden
Le chapeau haut-de-forme
Les mythes
Les philosophes de la nature
Démocrite
Le destin
Socrate
Athènes
Platon
Le chalet du major
Aristote
L'héllénisme
Les cartes postales
Deux cultures
Le Moyen Age
La Renaissance
Le baroque
Descartes
Locke
Hume
Berkeley
Bjerkely
Le siècle des Lumières
Kant
Le romantisme
Hegel
Kierkegaard
Marx
Darwin
Freud
L'époque contemporaine
La réception en plein air
Contrepoint
Le big bang
Two former lovers are brought back together ... but can they really trust their pasts? The new novel from the bestselling author of SOPHIE'S WORLD.
Through five intense years in the 1970s, Steinn and Solrunn had a happy life together. Then they suddenly parted ways, for reasons that are unclear to both. In the summer of 2007 they meet again on a balcony of an old wooden hotel by a fjord in western Norway. It is a place they both have fond memories from, and their meeting turns out to be fateful. But is it purely coincidental that they meet at that particular spot at that particular time? Over a couple of weeks that summer they write emails to each other, and it becomes clear that they have been living with very different interpretations of their shared past...
The international bestseller about life, the universe and everything.
'A simply wonderful, irresistible book' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'A terrifically entertaining and imaginative story wrapped round its tough, thought-provoking philosophical heart' DAILY MAIL
'Remarkable ... an extraordinary achievement' SUNDAY TIMES
When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.
A phenomenal worldwide bestseller, SOPHIE'S WORLD sets out to draw teenagers into the world of Socrates, Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel and all the great philosophers. A brilliantly original and fascinating story with many twists and turns, it raises profound questions about the meaning of life and the origin of the universe.
Twelve-year-old Hans Thomas lives alone with his father, a man who likes to give his son lessons about life and has a penchant for philosophy. Hans Thomas' mother left when he was four (to 'find' herself) and the story begins when father and son set off on a trip to Greece, where she now lives, to try to persuade her to come home. En route, in Switzerland, Hans Thomas is given a magnifying glass by a dwarf at a petrol station, and the next day he finds a tiny book in his bread roll which can only be read with a magnifying glass. How did the book come to be there? Why does the dwarf keep showing up? It is all very perplexing and Hans Thomas has enough to cope with, with the daunting prospect of seeing his mother. Now his journey has turned into an encounter with the unfathomable...or does it all have a logical explanation?
A mysterious novel by the author of the international bestseller SOPHIE'S WORLD.
A chance meeting on the Fijian island of Taveuni is the trigger for a fascinating and mysterious novel that intertwines the stories of John Spooke, an English author who is grieving for his dead wife; Frank Andersen, a Norwegian evolutionary biologist estranged from his wife Vera; and an enigmatic Spanish couple, Ana and Jose, who are absorbed in their love for each other. Why does Ana bear such a close resemblance to the model for Goya's famous Maja paintings? What is the significance of the Joker as he steps out of his pack of cards? As the action moves from Fiji to Spain, from the present to the past, unfolding further stories within the stories, the novel reveals an astonishing richness and complexity. As bold and imaginative in its sweep as Sophie's World, it shows again that Jostein Gaarder's unique and special gift is to make us wonder at the awe-inspiring mystery of the universe.
From the author of SOPHIE'S WORLD, a modern fairy tale with a philosophical twist.
'It should be read by all' VOGUE
'My father died eleven years ago. I was only four then. I never thought I'd hear from him again, but now we're writing a book together'
To Georg Røed, his father is no more than a shadow, a distant memory. But then one day his grandmother discovers some pages stuffed into the lining of an old red pushchair. The pages are a letter to Georg, written just before his father died, and a story, 'The Orange Girl'.
But 'The Orange Girl' is no ordinary story - it is a riddle from the past and centres around an incident in his father's youth. One day he boarded a tram and was captivated by a beautiful girl standing in the aisle, clutching a huge paper bag of luscious-looking oranges. Suddenly the tram gave a jolt and he stumbled forward, sending the oranges flying in all directions. The girl simply hopped off the tram leaving Georg's father with arms full of oranges. Now, from beyond the grave, he is asking his son to help him finally solve the puzzle of her identity.
A magical Christmas story from the bestselling author of Sophie's World
In the corner of a dusty old bookstore, a boy named Joachim discovers a magic advent calendar. When he opens the first door on 1st December, a small piece of paper falls out: on it is the beginning of a story about a little girl named Elisabet...
Little Elisabet has been missing ever since the day she ran after a lamb and found herself travelling right across Europe to Palestine, and back through 2000 years to meet the Holy Family in Bethlehem. There she met angels, shepherds and wise men who joined her on her pilgrimage.
Each of the twenty-four windows in Joachim's calendar hides another chapter in Elisabet's story, along with the key to unlock a renewed sense of awe at the true meaning of Christmas.
But who was Elisabet and where is she now? On Christmas Eve, all the pieces of the puzzle will come together...
