"Sophie's World," by Jostein Gaarder, is a fictional mystery philosophy novel that narrates the history of philosophy through someone named Albert Knag who is writing a book for his daughter, Hilde Moller Knag, for her fifteenth birthday. The book Albert Knag wrote is about a man named Alberto Knox who teaches a course in philosophy to Sophie Amundsen, the protagonist of the story. Sophie together with her philosophy teacher will unravel the mystery of the weird messages sent to them by a so called Major named Albert Knag only to find out that they are just mere characters in the Major's story. .
Sophie was introduced to the philosophical world when she receives an envelope containing the questions, "Who are you?"" and "Where does the world come from?"" Simple as those questions may seem, they have very deep answers. She also received a postcard addressed to Hilde Moller Knag which started the biggest mystery of her life. She was introduced to different philosophers and their "projects"" from the pre-Socratics or the natural philosophers to the contemporary philosophers by her philosophy teacher, Alberto Knox. .
Gaarder's book clearly narrates the history of philosophy through the lessons given to Sophie Amundsen by Alberto Knox. Anybody who wants to learn about the history of philosophy can read this book and understand the concepts with ease since they were explained with the basic knowledge of young minds. Like the Lego blocks on the lecture about Democritus' atom theory. .
As one reads the book, his or her perspective on existence would change as he or she goes through the philosophies of different philosophers. By the description of the book, one may say that it would be more like a textbook than a novel. But upon reading, it puts them in a young person's perspective of understanding the philosophical concepts discussed in the book with the adventures and mysteries to be faced by the protagonist.
