The Alchemist (novel)
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| Author | Paulo Coelho |
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| Original title | O Alquimista |
| Translator | Alan R. Clarke |
| Country | Brazil |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Harpertorch |
| Released | 1988 |
| Media type | mass paperback |
| Pages | 167 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-062-50218-2 ISBN 0-060-54388-4 |
The Alchemist (Portuguese: O Alquimista) is a bestseller that was but first published in Brazil in 1988 and is the most famous work of author Paulo Coelho. It is a symbolic story that urges its readers to follow their dreams.
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[edit] Summary
In the prologue, an alchemist traveling in a caravan in an unspecified place and time recounts a fable that he read along the way. The story is a modified version of the myth of Narcissus. The twist in this version is that the lake in which Narcissus drowned wept for the death of Narcissus not because of his beauty, but because the lake could gaze at its own beauty in the eyes of the young boy.This idea is taken from a short prose-poem by Oscar Wilde called 'The Disciple'.
Santiago, the protagonist, grew up with poor parents who had struggled their whole lives to send him to seminary. But Santiago had a strong desire to travel the world, and so his father allowed him to use his inheritance to buy a flock of sheep.
As a shepherd, he spent several years traveling the countryside of Andalusia in southern Spain, enjoying the care-free and adventurous life of a wanderer. As the story begins, we learn that a year ago Santiago met the beautiful daughter of a merchant in a town he is soon to revisit. Even though he spent only a few hours talking with this girl, his strong feelings for her make him question his life as a shepherd and make him consider the merits of a more settled life.
When he arrives in the town where the girl lives he first decides to go to a gypsy fortune-teller to help him decipher a recurring dream that he had been having. Santiago always dreamt that a child was playing with his sheep and then took him by the hand and brought him to the Pyramids of Egypt to show him the location of a hidden treasure. But Santiago always woke up just before the child was going to reveal to him the exact location of the treasure. The gypsy said that he has to go because if it is a child that tells, it exists.
The boy at first did not mind what the gypsy had said but when an old man, who call himself Melchizedeck, the king of Salem, told him that it is his personal legend or his purpose to live. Garland Hackett told him a wonderful story about a man who wanted to find happiness. Santiago decided to travel in Africa. He sold his sheep and went to Tangier. But in Tangier, he was robbed. Losing hope, he decided to walk and up in a hill, he found a crystal shop. Business tamed when the nearby city developed. When the boy entered the shop, he cleaned the dusty crystal glasses in exchange for some food to eat. As he was cleaning two customers entered the store and bought some crystal glasses. The Arab merchant was glad with what happened so he hired the boy. Santiago learns that every person's fate is written.
After almost a year, the boy decided to leave the crystal shop since he has enough money to buy a flock of sheep twice the number of the ones he had before. But he never bought a single sheep. He decided to fulfill his personal legend - to find his treasure.
He joined the caravan going to the desert where the Pyramids are found. In the caravan, the boy met the Englishman who for 20 years have searched for true alchemists. The Englishman has so many books on alchemy that are unusual to the boy. In the caravan, he learned so many things.
-- to be continued--
The caravan rolls on toward the oasis. As the Englishman attempts to observe the desert and learn its language, Santiago reads the Englishman's books and learns about alchemy. The Englishman tells him that the goal of alchemists is to purify metal by heating it for many years until all its individual properties are burned. After a while, he stopped reading and returned the books to the Englishman.
When they arrived in the oasis, they were welcomed and told that they can't proceed because of the tribal wars.He helped the Englishman look for the alchemist. And there, he met Fatima where he encountered love at first sight. Fatima was a desert woman and therefore understands that Santiago
on the oasis through a vision he had. but the alchemist warns him that in the future he would lose his ability to see omens as a result he would lose his position as the councilor and he would regret his decision of not perusing his destiny that is, finding the treasure.
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[edit] Notable Passages
Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself, and that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.
It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it...
To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation.
God only rarely reveals the future. When he does so, it is for one reason: it's a future that was written so as to be altered.
It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil, it's what comes out of their mouths that is.
The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
...at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the worlds greatest lie.
...there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. Its your mission on earth.
We have to take advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as its doing to help us. Its called the principle of favorability. Or beginners luck.
No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such speed. It feels an impulsion ... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond the horizons.
[edit] Similarities with other works
The plot draws largely from an English legend, "The Pedlar of Swaffham", which has been also used by Leo Perutz in "By Night under the Stone Bridge" and Borges' Tale of Two Dreamers, collected in Universal History of Infamy.
An even earlier possible source is in the work of the 13th century Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, who in one of the stories of his Mathanawi (written between 1260 and 1273) tells an almost identical tale. In a modern translation the story (told in verse) is titled "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad". (The Essential Rumi, transl. Coleman Barks, New York: HarperCollins, 1995) In it, a poor man in Baghdad who inherits a lot of money and land only to squander it quickly and become poor again has a dream, in which a voice tells him to go to Cairo and dig in a certain spot to find his wealth. When he gets there, while wandering the streets and begging for coins he is picked up by a night patrol. When he tells his story to the patrolman, the latter calls him a fool and tells him of a similar dream (which he had dismissed) about a place in Baghdad, describing the very street and house in which the poor man lives.
Many have compared The Alchemist to Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, a children's book about another boy, the Prince, who leaves his home in search of greater things, learning valuable lessons about life and love on the way. It is interesting to note that much of The Little Prince also takes place in the desert.
There are many parallels to Siddhartha's journey in Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. They both develop a spiritual aspect being alone early in life. Later, just like Siddhartha on his journey, Santiago has to become a business man; his ideas succeed in making him wealthy, but he is apart from the business of business. The Alchemist parallels the boatman in Siddhartha, who, after transporting Siddhartha across the river, sends him on his way to follow his destiny, knowing he will return. The love story develops and ends differently; Santiago has a different Personal Legend in that aspect. Both are "spiral" stories with the same places visited more than once.
Some have also compared and contrasted this story and the journey of Santiago to the biblical account of the Prodigal Son.
[edit] Style
The style of writing is simplistic, with correlations to that of The Little Prince, fairy tales, or spiritual writings.
[edit] Translations
Originally written in Portuguese, it has, as of 2004, been translated into fifty-six languages, and has sold more than 40 million copies in more than 150 countries, making it one of the best selling books of all time.
In China & Australia it has gained particular success. The Herald Sun listed it as one of the five most commonly stolen books from Melbourne's book shops.
In the foreword, Coelho explains that this is a symbolic version of his experience described in The Pilgrimage.
[edit] Adaptation
A motion picture version is in development at Warner Brothers with Robert Schwartz and Stephen Storer producing, although Coelho has stated on his website that he has tried to buy back the rights to the film for the sum of $2 million.
The English audio book version is read by actor Jeremy Irons.
[edit] Reference
- The Alchemist (1995) ISBN 0-062-50218-2 (2002) ISBN 0-060-54388-4
[edit] External Links
Summary of The Alchemist - chapter and character summary wiki.
