The Alchemist

Written by Paulo Coelho
Translated by Alan R. Clarke

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Tonight I’ll write a short, formal letter to my boss stating my intention to resign from the company. I’ll bring the letter with me to work tomorrow, and as I hand it over I’ll explain that I’ve decided to pursue my own “Personal Legend”. I’ll tell my boss that I had a dream—no, a vision even—that my place in this world is to be a writer, and if I don’t chase after this dream then it’d be like going against nature and my life would deem to be a failure. He won’t understand me right away, of course, so I’ll just tell him to get a copy of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and read it.

Yes, that’s what I’ll do after having read The Alchemist . . . if I really thought that life is all that simple.

The book’s real message, I believe, goes beyond feeling a spark of inspiration or taking big leaps out on a whim. In fact, it wouldn’t really be wise for a reader to take the book in its plain, literal sense. For instance, it obviously would be irrational to believe that “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”. Perhaps more than half the world’s population have life stories that attest to how that isn’t the real case in our universe. And unlike “the alchemist” himself, many people wouldn’t think it fair that if a woman’s love is really “made of pure matter”, then a man can go away to concentrate on his own personal aspirations and expect that he “can always come back” to his woman who will patiently and selflessly await his return. Indeed, these wouldn’t be good lessons to absorb from the story.

“And when each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.”

With several references to Biblical and Islamic precepts as well as ancient proverbs, the book is like a string of tied-up parables with the epic twist of an adventure story. And throughout the protagonist’s journey, he meets different characters offering different philosophies, and sometimes even contradicting points of view. An old king encourages the boy Santiago to follow his dreams, while another character teaches him about being truly happy by concentrating on the present. Contradicting as they may sound, both are actually lessons about having a positive attitude. Some lessons are outspoken in unadorned sentences while others are bound in mystery, almost entirely vague. And if you think about it, the book doesn’t really claim to teach a single absolute truth. Indeed in order to assimilate something good out of the story, one must look past the mystical elements and focus on how it should influence him personally.

Coelho stated that The Alchemist is a “metaphor” of his own life. Much like the story’s protagonist, he already had a job from which he took pride and pleasure in doing, a woman whom he surely loved, and as well as other necessities in life for which to be content with. What he didn’t have, however, was the fulfillment of his dream. His “Personal Legend”, as it’s constantly called throughout the book. I guess for some, the idea relates to their concept of destiny, or for others perhaps their so-called purpose in life. Others might simply call it their ambition, or lifelong aspiration. But whatever it is, Coelho’s story endeavors to inspire the reader to pursue it. And this is what the novel is ultimately all about—to have the passion, the courage, the faith and the unfailing determination to follow something you believe in. The book also teaches that in our pursuit to find our life's treasure, what we pick up along the journey—the people we meet and the experiences we get—is sometimes even more valuable than what we had set out to look for, and the original treasure becomes more of a trophy for what we've already accomplished.

“That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’”

In any case, this of course does not make the book unique. Coelho’s allegorical novel is essentially a romanticized self-help book. What actually makes it good, however, is the story itself. The story of Santiago’s quest is simple and pleasant. But like any good fable, the book’s simplistic form is only somewhat of an innocent deception that masks its highly philosophical quality. The short prologue by itself is a lovely story. Retelling the tale of Narcissus with an amusing twist, the book begins with a wonderful lesson from an unlikely story—the lesson that if we reflect the beauty of others, allowing them to see through our eyes that they are special, we too in effect make ourselves beautiful and special.

All in all, The Alchemist is an entertaining read that, more often than not, will leave its reader in a delightfully good mood.

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The Alchemist - Gift Edition is an exquisitely-crafted hardcover edition that comes with an elegant bookcase and contains colorful illustrations by artist James Noel Smith.

The following video clip is an interview with author Paulo Coelho, taken from the HarperCollins site.

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Producer Harvey Weinstein announced plans for a Hollywood film adaptation of The Alchemist. It’s reported that Laurence Fishburne will both direct and star on the film.

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