GAARDER, JOSTEINSOPHIE'S WORLD
A Novel about the History of Philosophy
(Sofies verden)
Phoenix, Lndon, 1997
preklad Paulette Moller
obálka Sarah Perkins
14. vydanie
ISBN 1-85799-291-1
román
436 s., angličtina
hmotnosť: 352 g
mäkká väzba
stav: veľmi dobrý
3,00 €
*kamag* in **O2**
Looking in her mailbox one day, a fourteen-year-old Norwegian schoolgirl called Sophie Amundsen finds two surprising pieces of paper. On them are written the questions: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Where docs the world come from?’
The writer is an enigmatic philosopher called Albert Knox, and his two teasing questions are the beginning of an extraordinary tour through the history of Western Philosophy from the pre-Socratics to Sartre. In a series of brilliantly entertaining letters, and then in person (with his dog, Hermes), Albert Knox opens Sophie’s enquiring mind to the fundamental questions that philosophers have been asking since the dawn of civilisation.
But as soon as Sophie begins to find her feet in this dazzling, exciting new world, she and Albert find themselves caught up in a plot which is itself a most perplexing philosophical conundrum ...
HELLENISM
... a spark from the fire ...
Although the philosophy teacher had begun sending his letters directly to the old hedge, Sophie nevertheless looked in the mailbox on Monday morning, more out of habit than anything else.
It was empty, not surprisingly. She began to walk down Clover Close.
Suddenly she noticed a photograph lying on the sidewalk. It was a picture of a white jeep and a blue flag with the letters UN on it. Wasn’t that the United Nations flag?
Sophie turned the picture over and saw that it was a regular postcard. To ‘Hilde Moller Knag, c/o Sophie Amundsen ...’ It had a Norwegian stamp and was postmarked ‘UN Battalion’ Friday June 15, 1990.
June 15! That was Sophie’s birthday!
The card read:
Dear Hilde, I assume you are still celebrating your 15th birthday. Or is this the morning after? Anyway, it makes no difference to your present. In a sense, that will last a lifetime. But I’d like to wish you a happy birthday one more time. Perhaps you understand now why I send the cards to Sophie. I am sure she will pass them on to you.
P.S. Mom said you had lost your wallet. I hereby promise to reimburse you the 150 crowns. You will probably be able to get another school I.D. before they close for the summer vacation. Love from Dad.
Sophie stood glued to the spot. When was the previous card postm also postmarked June—even though it was a whole month off. She simply hadn’t looked properly.
She glanced at her watch and then ran back to the house. She would just have to be late for school today!
Sophie let herself in and leaped upstairs to her room. She found the first postcard to Hilde under the red silk scarf. Yes! It was also postmarked June 15! Sophie’s birthday and the day before the summer vacation.
Her mind was racing as she ran over to the supermarket to meet Joanna.
Who was Hilde? How could her father as good as take it for granted that Sophie would find her? In any case, it was senseless of him to send Sophie the cards instead of sending them directly to his daughter. It could not possibly be because he didn’t know his own daughter’s address. Was it a practical joke? Was he trying to surprise his daughter on her birthday by getting a perfect stranger to play detective and mailman? Was that why she was being given a month’s headstart? And was using her as the go-between a way of giving his daughter a new girlfriend as a birthday present? Could she be the present that would ‘last a lifetime’?
If this joker really was in Lebanon, how had he gotten hold of Sophie’s address? Also, Sophie and Hilde had at least two things in common. If Hilde’s birthday was June 15, they were both born on the same day. And they both had fathers who were on the other side of the globe.
Sophie felt she was being drawn into an unnatural world. Maybe it was not so dumb after all to believe in fate. Still—she shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions; it could all have a perfectly natural explanation. But how had Alberto Knox found Hilde’s wallet when Hilde lived in Lillesand? Lillesand was hundreds of miles away. And why had Sophie found this postcard on her sidewalk? Did it fall out of the mailman’s bag just as he got to Sophie’s mailbox? If so, why should he drop this particular card?
‘Are you completely insane?’ Joanna burst out when Sophie finally made it to the supermarket.
‘Sorry!’
Joanna frowned at her severely, like a schoolteacher.
´You’d better have a good explanation.’
‘It has to do with the UN,’ said Sophie, ‘I was detained by hostile troops in Lebanon.’
‘Sure ... You’re just in love!’
They ran to school as fast as their legs could carry them.
