Inspirations: Selections from Classic Literature

by Paulo Coelho (Selection, Preface)

'Anthology' comes from the Greek word that stands for garlands - a bouquet of flowers. An anthology then, should be a small token of something much larger. In the case of flowers, they bring to mind the colour & fragrance of the fields, of a season. Coelho's anthology, therefore, is not only a collection of texts or poems, but a gift, something arranged according to his sensitivities, to give to others. The selection of books presented in this volume have been chosen as if from a vast field of flowers, stretching infinitely into time's horizon. Coelho's selection is ordered in to the four elements, symbolizing both our world on all its directions, and the way we dwell in it, the way we say it. In 'Earth' we find writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde and D H Lawrence; in 'Air' Nelson Mandela and Gabriel Garcia Marques; in 'Fire' Rumi and Mary Shelley; in 'Water' Hans Christian Anderson and Machiavelli.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Inspirational, Spirituality, Anthologies, Short Stories, Poetry

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

The Brazilian author PAULO COELHO was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist and journalist. In 1986, PAULO COELHO did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, COELHO published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best selling Brazilian books of all time. Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika decides to die (1998), The Devil and Miss Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for parents, children and grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005), The Witch of Portobello (2006) and Winner Stands Alone (to be released in 2009). During the months of March, April, May and June 2006, Paulo Coelho traveled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella in 1986. He also held surprise book signings - announced one day in advance - in some cities along the way, to have a chance to meet his readers. In ninety days of pilgrimage the author traveled around the globe and took the famous Transiberrian train that took him to Vladivostok. During this experience Paulo Coelho launched his blog Walking the Path - The Pilgrimage in order to share with his readers his impressions. Since this first blog Paulo Coelho has expanded his presence in the internet with his daily blogs in Wordpress, Myspace & Facebook. He is equally present in media sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr, offering on a regular basis not only texts but also videos and pictures to his readers. From this intensive interest and use of the Internet sprang his bold new project: The Experimental Witch where he invites his readers to adapt to the screen his book The Witch of Portobello. Indeed Paulo Coelho is a firm believer of Internet as a new media and is the first Best-selling author to actively support online free distribution of his work.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've recently started really enjoying to read anthology collections. I think that it gives me the opportunity to get a taste of different styles of writing without getting myself into a book that I might not enjoy. This collection was about classic works of writing, the majority which I have read before. It surprised me how many I had already read and loved. Really, that was back when writing was GOOD and intense. An interesting collection of writing.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and quick book of excerpts, organized beautifully by Paulo Coelho. A lovely book to have on your shelf, to pull out and read a small story.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the choices he made but aside from the short introduction, I wish he had explained more as to why he chose each novel and how it relates to the theme.

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection of excerpts from classical literature that inspired the author in some way. He organizes this according to the elements (water, earth, air, fire), and despite the introduction at the start of each section which details how each selection fits into the section, I found it was still hard to really see how he chose them for each element.

However, it was nice to read pieces of classics so I could get a sense of if I might enjoy them or not. I had only read one of the works he included before (Lady Chatterly's Lover) and while some seemed interesting (Dracula maybe?) I think the context of each is kinda lacking since it is such short pieces.

Overall it was still interesting and I enjoyed most of them (sorry to poetry lovers but I did not like the poetry sections) enough to finish the book and start to think about reading some older books again.

[Rohit Kunal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection of excerpts from books that gave Paulo Coelho inspiration. I've took this up to read a few pages of some good books and see if I like them or not. It was an okay read.

[AnyMousse · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve wanted to read classic literature but found the task to daunting (long paragraphs, awkward/archaic phrasing, pages numbering in the hundreds, etc), then Inspirations: Selections from Classic Literature by Paulo Coelho is a nice primer.

The book is broken down in four sections: Water, Earth, Air and Fire. Per the book’s introduction:

“The Ancients believed that all things—visible and invisible—were composed of four different substances, uncreated and imperishable: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. It’s important to stress that these elements were not simply considered in their material form—they were in fact understood symbolically. The attributes of each element then corresponded to specific spiritual, mental or physical dimension.” (Introductory page XV).

I’m less concerned with the ancient elements here than with the content of the stories and essays themselves (what can I say; I love stories that make me think).

From Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling, to Louis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland, to De Profundis, Dracula and Eichmann and the Holocaust, this book is rich in literary content and will leave the reader wanting to track down the full versions of these wonderful essays, novels and stories.

I should state the only reason I didn’t give this book four stars was due to the last section of the book (Fire). Interesting ideas, but to many religious texts for my taste. But that’s personal preference; don’t let that persuade you from reading.

[Jas Deol · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to revisit every few years.

[Paul Manytravels · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an anthology of widely diverse selections from the literatures of many eras and cultures. Each, or at least, most of the readings are interesting and high quality themselves, but even after reading the introduction a couple of times as well as the introductions to each of the 4 sections of the book, I found no unifying theme, nothing that justified bringing these selectios together. Moreover, some were too incomplete and in need of annotation and something to provide background and context in order to allow them to be more fully read and understood.
Anthologies are supposed to bring together selections the reader will like and maybe some he won't and this anthology does that, but the absence of a unifying theme and the esoteric vagueness of some of the selections left me wishing for a better book.

[Pavithra Mouli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Except for a select few, I found the other works in this compilation either horrific or boring or revolting. If not anything else, this compilation has given me a taste of some of the classics I haven't read before and now can happily never read.

[Alexa S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this I would never have read otherwise, so it was good exposure to a wide range of literature (which is why it was assigned). Some of it I liked, some of it I close to disliked, and some of it was Lady Chatterley's Lover and blew my mind in its strangeness.

[Joy Cho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet again... meh...

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Selected readings from all over the board - fairy tales to political treatises.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not think much of this was worth reading.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bold experimentation or phoning it in?
Some of Coelho's own work is brilliant in its wise simplicity, so I had high hopes that his personal favorites from the world literature would be particularly meaningful. This selection of classic excerpts is disappointing. In part because it is already familiar material, but also because without some kind of more detailed commentary, it feels like a rip-off where old Paulo just dumped together some random stuff from his library shelves: the Ugly Duckling, Machiavelli, Lady Chatterly's Lover, whatever. I am a big fan and was expecting something more like his monthly blog where he ties together a few traditional stories. I guess the point here is for the reader to see the Moon and not the finger and generate inspiration from the readings themselves, and that with such a hugely varied selection, something in there will be inspirational to somebody. Also, the excerpts are taken from great stuff and maybe some readers will be tempted to dive into those books further.

[d · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the other guy said, the excerpts are from well-known works, and they weren't bound together in any deep, cohesive way. In fact, whenever Coelho started talking about how they do relate to each other at the beginning of each segment, I rolled my eyes and skipped over. I knew this when I bought the book, but I only bought it because I'm not very well-read and haven't read quite a few of the books that are borrowed from in this anthology. I've been meaning to get around to a few of them, and I thought this would help me get a better idea, so this is the only case in which I would recommend it to anyone else. If I had read this a little earlier I would have known to steer clear of Frankenstein, but I did realize how much I wanted to read the Arabian Nights because of it, so now I've got myself a copy!
There were lots of other little stories that bored the heck out of me like the chapter from Lady Chatterley's Lover, and neither did I like The Prince much... (didn't finish some, even) but some were worth it. Especially the Infinite Library one, that was wonderful

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of a selection of famous works of literature chose by Paulo Coelho and sorted into sections of all the elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire.
Covering such diverse works as Hans Anderson's The ugly duckling to the Dead sea scrolls there is something in this volume to please everyone.
Personally I would rather read a whole novel than just excerpts as many I had read before and others that I was interested in just gave you a brief, tantalising glimpse but then that is the nature of this work and I bought it on the strength that it was compiled by Coelho.
An overall good read though and would appeal to people with little time to read a full novel as the excerpts are short enough for a one sitting read.

[Deepak Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many people can read all the pieces in it with some sort satisfaction after buying it for $9,if he is not a faaaaaaan of paulo.Sure he might have done no tedious work to produce a such a catalog of diverging tastes.He just divided all the story bits in to four portions -four elements .A common reader may not feel the same way as paulo visualized, and I must say he is making money with less effort.

[Ajeng · Rating 3 out of 5]

My personal favourite is Bhagavad Gita excerpt towards the end of the book. Perfect selection to get into the anthology, another is Kahlil Gibran. The rest were vaguely boring and without any real coherence to his introduction in each chapter. It's a disappointment to be honest.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick enjoyable read. Interesting reading peices from works I'm already familiar with while considering why Mr. Coelho chose these particular sections. Even more rewarding to read other passages from works I've not yet discovered. Will be picking up a few new classics to enjoy as a result.

[Rin]

penasarannn...

[Elly]

Not rating because anthology from too many different authors and kinds of texts. Enjoyed it though.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lovely little volume will give you a taste of many classics that you may never have an chance to read otherwise. Really cleverly arranged.

[Ambar Parashar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, consists of excerpts from superb novels and other books.

[Marie-pierre Stien · Rating 1 out of 5]

A small insipid collection of already well-known essays.

[Samar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excluding Lawrence, the rest were beautiful selections. Especially Yeats' poem and the absurd extract from Garcia Marquez's famous book.

[Rajesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

where is the simplicity of coelho's writing.

[Janurey Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suddenly I'm informed...

[ALOK B HOTA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice stories, small, informative and full of message

[Cherie Kephart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, charming read. Love the selections. Brought me back to rereading some lovely, inspiring stories.

[Ronald Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

classic