Book review

The Alchemist
-

Paulo Coehlo

Presented by:
Bhavesh Bajaj
FY.BFM
Roll NO : 3

[Type text]

Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Miss.Anjali Dholakia for giving me an opportunity to
read this book The Alchemist and also write a review on it. It has changed
my way of thinking and also invocated me the habit of reading a book as I
am not an avid reader. Also thanking my parents for helping me and
supporting me in writing this book.
Many points and data have been collected from various newspapers,
magazines and internet sites. Unfortunately, sources were not always noted
or available ; hence it becomes impractical to provide an accuarate
acknowledgement. Regardless of the source, I wish to express my
gratitude to those who may have contributed to this work, even though
anonymously.

Table Of Contents
Sr. No

Topics

About The Author

introduction

summarisation

Characterisation

Plot Structure

conclusion

Language & validity of

the text
My review

8
9
10

Audience
perspective
Bibliography &
webliography

About The Authour

Biography
Paulo Coelho was born on 24th April,1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a
teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Coelho concluded that a
writer "always wears glasses and never combs his hair" and has a "duty
and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation," amongst
other things. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre
director before pursuing his writing career. In an interview, Coelho stated
"[In 1986], I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing
something that gave me food and water to use the metaphor in "The
Alchemist", I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but
I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer."
Coelho would leave his lucrative career as a songwriter and pursue writing
full-time.

Writing career
Coelho is a primary author and in 1982 Coelho published his first book,
Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1986 he
contributed to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried
to take it off the shelves since he considered it of bad quality." After
making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986, Coelho wrote
The Pilgrimage. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and
published it through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an
initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He subsequently
found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book
Brida, The Alchemist became a Brazilian bestseller. The Alchemist has
gone on to sell more than 65 million copies, becoming one of the bestselling books in history, and has been translated into more than 70
languages, the 71st being Maltese, winning the Guinness World Record for
most translated book by a living author.

Adaptations
Several of Coelho's books have been adapted into other media.
1998 TV Manchete made a 52-episode miniseries based on Brida. This
adaptation was written by Jayme Camargo, Snia Mota and Aglica
Lopes, and directed by Walter Avancini. The Brazilian actress Carolina
Kasting played Brida. It was the last novel filmed by TV Manchete. It
was an audience failure and this adaptation was even reproved by Paulo
Coelho himself. Due to the lack of sponsors, it had a premature ending:
the last scenes were not recorded, being replaced by screenshots with
narrations. In 2004 Warner Bros. bought the rights to the film
adaptation of The Alchemist. The project stalled and never
materialized.. In 2007 In June Paulo Coelho announced The
Experimental Witch Project, a collaborative project based on The Witch
of Portobello. In 2009 Veronika Decides to Die was made into a film
released. 2011 In July Coelho ran Aleph, The Video Contest to
collaborate and increase interaction with his more than 5,000,000
friends on Facebook. The winner was Turkish artist Raif Kurt.

Introduction

The Alchemist details the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named

Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to
travel to a gypsy in a nearby town to discover its meaning. She tells him
that there is a treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt. As he leaves, the gypsy
mentions one thing: If he does find the treasure, she wants 10 percent of it.
He meets an old king, Melchizedek who tells him to sell his sheep to travel
to Egypt, and his Personal Legend: what he always wanted to accomplish
in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires
in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the
book. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and
learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. During his travels, he
meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima who explains to him that
if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks. Santiago then
encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that
people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the
personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the
alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand
their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings."

Summarisation

Set in an undefined time and taking place alternately between Spain and
Egypt, The Alchemist is the story of Santiagos quest for fortune, his
Personal Legend, and the decoding of the Language of the World. The
young man must endure many obstacles. First, he must overcome those
who have told him since childhood that his dreams can never be realized.
Santiago has to understand that those who truly love him will not begrudge
him the pursuit of his dreams. Then, he must hold back fear of failure and
defeat to continue his quest. Last, he has to understand that the worst thing
in life is to deny ones dreams.
Although the ultimate realization of ones dreams is a solitary affair,
Santiago is required to accept help in various guises, not all of which are
immediately understood as helpful. He must agree to give up part of
whatever fortune he finds. He has to believe in the interpretation of his
dreams and trust in a man, an alchemist, who has valuable information
to share, although the man is mysterious and his veracity unchecked. He
must place his faith in the alchemist when all logic would dictate
otherwise.
Santiago must let go in order to receive real love, find fortune, and achieve
understanding. Like all of those who dare to dream, Santiago experiences
setbacks. During his journey, Santiago is delayed as he works for many
months in a crystal shop. When he is able to raise enough money to travel,
the reality of tribal warfare threatens his life. But like an adventurer in the
midst of a sandstorm, Santiago keeps his eyes on the path and his mind on
his task. When he eventually realizes his dreams, they are better than he
could have ever imagined.

Characterisation

Santiago
Santiago is the protagonist of The Alchemist. Born in a small town in
Andalusia, Santiago attends the seminary as a boy but longs to travel the
world. He finally gets the courage to ask his father's permission to become
a shepherd so that he can travel the fields of Andalusia. One day, he meets
a mysterious man in the town of Tarifa, who sends him on a journey to the
other side of Africa. Santiago is a curious boy whose open mind makes
him particularly suited to finding his Personal Legend. He also values his
freedom very highly, which is why he became a shepherd and why he is
reticent to get involved in things which threaten his freedom. In the end, he
realizes that playing it safe is often more threatening to his freedom than
taking a risk.
Melchizedek
Melchizedek is the king of Salem, a mysterious far-off land. Melchizedek
appears to Santiago in the town square of Tarifa, where he tells Santiago
about the Soul of the World and his Personal Legend for the first time.
Melchizedek always appears to people who are trying to live their Personal
Legend, even if they don't know it. While he appears at first to be dressed
in common Arab dress, at one point he pulls aside his cloak to reveal a
gold breastplate encrusted with precious stones. He also gives Santiago the
magical stones Urim and Thummim.
The Englishman
Santiago meets the Englishman on the caravan to Al-Fayoum. The
Englishman is trying to become a great alchemist and is traveling to AlFayoum to study with a famous alchemist who is rumored to be over 200
years old and to have the ability to turn any metal into gold. Santiago
learns much about alchemy from the Englishman, who lends Santiago his
books while they travel across the Sahara.

Fatima
A beautiful girl who lives at the Al-Fayoum oasis. Santiago falls in love
with her at the well there. He and Fatima talk everyday for several weeks,
and finally he asks her to marry him. Fatima, however, insists that he seek
out his Personal Legend before they marry. This perplexes Santiago, but
the Alchemist teaches him that true love never gets in the way of fulfilling
one's dreams. If it does, then it is not true love.

The Alchemist
Very powerful alchemist who lives at the Al-Fayoum oasis in Egypt.
Initially, Santiago hears about him through the Englishman, but eventually
Santiago reveals himself to be the Alchemist's true disciple. The Alchemist
dresses in all black and uses a falcon to hunt for game. The Alchemist is
also in possession of the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone.

The Shopkeeper
Gives Santiago a job in Tangiers after he has been robbed. Santiago takes
the job at the crystal shop and learns much about the shopkeeper's attitude
toward life and the importance of dreaming. The shopkeeper, while
generally afraid to take risks, is a very kind man and understands
Santiago's quest - sometimes more than Santiago himself. This is the case
when the shopkeeper tells Santiago that he will not return to Spain, since it
it is not his fate.

Plot Structure

Dreams, symbols, signs, and adventure follow the reader like echoes of
ancient wise voices in "The Alchemist", a novel that combines an
atmosphere of Medieval mysticism with the song of the desert. With this
symbolic masterpiece Coelho states that we should not avoid our destinies,
and urges people to follow their dreams, because to find our "Personal
Myth" and our mission on Earth is the way to find "God", meaning
happiness, fulfillment, and the ultimate purpose of creation.
The novel tells the tale of Santiago, a boy who has a dream and the
courage to follow it. After listening to "the signs" the boy ventures in his
personal, Ulysses-like journey of exploration and self-discovery,
symbolically searching for a hidden treasure located near the pyramids in
Egypt.
When he decides to go, his father's only advice is "Travel the world until
you see that our castle is the greatest, and our women the most beautiful".
In his journey, Santiago sees the greatness of the world, and meets all
kinds of exciting people like kings and alchemists. However, by the end of
the novel, he discovers that "treasure lies where your heart belongs", and
that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made, and the
wisdom he acquired.
"The Alchemist", is an exciting novel that bursts with optimism; it is the
kind of novel that tells you that everything is possible as long as you really
want it to happen. That may sound like an oversimplified version of newage philosophy and mysticism, but as Coelho states "simple things are the
most valuable and only wise people appreciate them".

As the alchemist himself says, when he appears to Santiago in the form of

an old king "when you really want something to happen, the whole

universe conspires so that your wish comes true". This is the core of the
novel's philosophy and a motif that echoes behind Coelho's writing all
through "The Alchemist". And isn't it true that the whole of humankind
desperately wants to believe the old king when he says that the greatest lie
in the world is that at some point we lose the ability to control our lives,
and become the pawns of fate. Perhaps this is the secret of Coelho's
success: that he tells people what they want to hear, or rather that he tells
them that what they wish for but never thought possible could even be
probable.
Coelho also suggests that those who do not have the courage to follow
their " Personal Myth", are doomed to a life of emptiness, misery, and
unfulfillment. Fear of failure seems to be the greatest obstacle to
happiness. As the old crystal-seller tragically confesses: " I am afraid that
great disappointment awaits me, and so I prefer to dream". This is where
Coelho really captures the drama of man, who sacrifices fulfillment to
conformity, who knows he can achieve greatness but denies to do so, and
ends up living a life of void.
It is interesting to see that Coelho presents the person who denies to follow
his dream as the person who denies to see God, and that "every happy
person carries God within him". However, only few people choose to
follow the road that has been made for them, and find God while searching
for their destiny, and their mission on earth.
Consequently, is Coelho suggesting that the alchemists found God while
searching for the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone? What is certain
is that the symbolism of the text is a parallel to the symbolism and the
symbolic language of alchemism, and similarly the symbolism of dreams
is presented as " God's language".
It is also symbolic that Santiago finds his soul-mate, and the secrets of
wisdom in the wilderness of the desert. The "wilderness" is a symbol that
has been used by many great writers e.g.. Austen in "Mansfield Park", and
Shakespeare in "King Lear". In the desert, Santiago meets his "twin-soul"
and discovers that love is the core of existence and creation. As Coelho
explains, when we love, we always try to improve ourselves, and that's
when everything is possible. The subject of love inspires a beautiful
lyricism in Coelho's writing: " I love you because the whole universe
conspired for me to come close to you."

"The Alchemist" is a novel that may appeal to everybody, because we can

all identify with Santiago: all of us have dreams, and are dying for
somebody to tell us that they may come true. The novel skillfully
combines words of wisdom, philosophy, and simplicity of meaning and
language, which makes it particularly readable and accounts for its
bestselling status.

Conclusion
The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic,
universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in
English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience
of readers for generations to come.
The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd
boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as
any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of
Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the
alchemist.
The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only
a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our
hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all,
following our dreams.
"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist
one night as they looked up at the moonless sky." 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."

Validity & language of

the text
The Alchemist is an allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho first published in
1988. The Alchemist was originally written in Portuguese and the original
title was O Alquinista. The Genre of the book is Quest, Adventure, Drama
and Fantasy.
It has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries,
becoming one of the best-selling books in history, as of 2004. The book
has been reported to be the most stolen book. The Alchemist is among the
top 100 of the most read books of the world. The book was originally
published in Portugeuese and later translated into 71 different languages
Paulo Coelhos writing style in The Alchemist is allegorical and has
used a third person mode of narration. The novel is basically a
symbolic parable emphasizing on the importance following one's dreams.
As in many of Paulo Coelhos other books, this novel also has an
element of philosophy and mysticism in it.

My Review
The Alchemist is one of the best books I've enjoyed so far. I found it really
interesting. This book keeps you engaged in reading. Though I am not an
avid reader I still loved reading it.
It gives some really meaningful messages and also helps you to chase your
dreams and accomplish them. This story tells us that whatever hurdles you
face, whatever circumstances you come across with never give up because
there is something special awaiting for you like there is always dark before
the dawn.
What I like about the book is it helps you realise your personal legends. It
teaches you to live your life well. Let go of anything that is a burden.
Follow your dreams .Let go of things that are not within your control.
There is something to be learnt in everything. There is so much wisdom
contained within the pages of this little book, but for me, the most
important one, is to enjoy every minute of your life. Remember, its not the
destination, but the journey that counts.

Audience perspective
This book has crossed the boundries of books, and has taken a life of its
own, creating a movement all around the globe. Reading this book always
sets me back on the right path towards achieving the dreams I have put on
hold. We always try to do what everyone expects of us like pursuing a
career that you hate just because that is what everyone does. Recognizing
my personal legend, being able to talk to the trees, sky, ants, the core of the
earth, the air particles, and to my heart, feeling a deeper spiritual
connection with everything everyone that is around me, feeling God inside
me, and not being afraid of failing or facing challenges are just some of the
few things this book has given me.
It is maktub that Coelho writes this book, shares it with the world, and
affect so many lives. This masterwork is a legend and a precious treasure
- Ishan Gambhir
This book is very inspiring and what I really need right now to motivate
myself with my everyday endevours. A very inspiring and positive book, it
actually gives me hope that the things that I aspire for will in the end I
would achieve if only I strive hard and don't lose hope until I get it.
Sometimes the detours and the problems that we face now were later on in
our life will make sense and when you remember that moment especially
if you had overcome it you will know that you are thankful for that to
happen because in the end you would learn something from it.
- Apekshit Babaria

Bibliography & Webliography

Bibliography :
The Alchemist Paulo Coehlo
Webliography :
www.wikipedia.org
www.amazon.com
www.wikianswers.com
www.paulocoehlo.com