The Prophet

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Summary: Nothing like A Reader From Victoria, BC suggests...
Review: This post isn't a review of The Prophet. The Prophet stands on its own merit and doesn't need a review from me. This post is a response to the one below from A Reader From Victoria, BC. It's been quite some time since I've read anything even remotely as pompous as the post from Victoria, BC. I suggest to our dear visitor from Canada that, when he/she finishes whatever wretched academic program he/she is so obviously attempting to complete, he/she is more than welcome to show Gibran how it's done up in Victoria. When a few million people list your writing among of the most significant ever put down on paper, then maybe you'll have some basis to support your ranting. Until then, I hope your psudo-intellectual analysis at least brings you the grades you're looking for in your poetry courses, because it's clear you haven't the slightest ability to feel the meaning in a poet's words. P.S. I thought academicians signed their work in the spirit of free and open criticism. Or am I just supposed to email everyone in Victoria?

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Summary: The Best Book in English written by a Non-English person.
Review: The Prophet is simply the best book ever written in the English language. The themes deal with everyday problems in human life and offers solutions and wisdom in dealing with everyday. If you have not read the Prophet what are you waiting for? Truth is Here. What do you have to lose? It is in every bookstore in the world.

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Summary: A book that will change your life...
Review: If I were shipwrecked on a desert island and could only take one book, this would have to be it. Never have I read such a compassionate discourse on the very issues which we all think about each day, no matter if it is 1923 or 2003. Work, marriage, love: each subject is treated with a short essay that will challenge everything you have ever been taught. Gibran's words also give comfort to the reader when ordinary counsel has left him lost. Each reader should re-read this book every 10 years. Although Gibran's words never change, you have; it is like meeting up with an old trusted friend...you are home.

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Summary: has to be read to be believed, though I don't recommend it
Review: Kahlil Gibran, in his ostensibly didactic "masterpiece," The Prophet, grants his God such appellations as "master spirit of the earth" and "living ether," but nevertheless refers consistently to Him simply as "God" and has a "seeress" explicitly hail the book's orator, Almustafa, as a "Prophet of God." It must be noted that despite The Prophet's philosophical air, no philosophical conception of God is achieved, even by Gibran's tiresome metaphors, which are compounded in their pretentiousness by a series of ridiculous illustrations depicting them literally. The reader must keep the fact of a conventionally conceived deity in mind for when he is told near the book's conclusion that all of the preceding ramblings, many of which present purely intuitive ethics, are precisely what constitute religion. Piety and free-thought die at each others' hands. Nothing even resembling a coherent philosophy emerges, nor is the book an inspired or advanced treatment of a philosophy developed by Gibran elsewhere. Read as philosophy, this book amounts at most to platitudes steeped in undisciplined metaphor and expounded with an insufferable tone of self-assured profundity sure to leave the unsuspecting intelligent reader aghast. And any search for psychology in The Prophet will be as fruitless as that for philosophy. Almustafa's insights are hollow, and usually dissolve completely at the slightest probing. A few of his discourses - for example, those on "Joy and Sorrow" or "Self-Knowledge" - seem at their outset to show promise, or at least potential, but these, too, rapidly reveal themselves as only further occasions for his mystical jabbering. It could reasonably be supposed that this book might atone in part for its intellectual crimes with some kind of pleasantly numbing poetic, or even lyrical, quality. In this respect, though, if it is possible, the reader of The Prophet suffers even worse. Written only in 1923, it offers no excuse for its comical archaisms and stilted delivery apart from a vague imitation of Ecclesiastes, for which it praises itself highly in the dust jacket. Adding insult to injury, it reads as an insipid mimicry of a true masterpiece, written in the year of Gibran's birth. The oracular style of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra is acceptable not only because the work is one of pure genius, but because of the brilliant injection of wit and humour counterbalancing its heavy style. Aside from its basic structure, though, only Zarathustra's tone is preserved by Gibran in his work-- and is taken to revolting depths of tedium. (Incidently, some of Gibran's other titles are suspiciously Nietzschean-- e.g. The Madman, The Wanderer.) The impression the reader gagging his way through these pages is left with is of absolute nausea; however, the instant The Prophet is set down, its lasting impression is one merely of an irksome literary blip, whose immortality was unfortunately secured for it during the sixties, though it is now often bestowed upon members of a new generation so that they too may be captivated by it. This enduring appeal of Gibran's work is perhaps most staggering, and disturbing, of all. Basking in the glow of its success, it informs the reader triumphantly that its ninety-six pages are "beloved" by millions, and have been "reprinted one hundred and twenty-eight times" in many different editions, including a fifty dollar hardcover. If not taken in by the efforts of The Prophet's publishers to exalt this odious little pamphlet to biblical status, one is sure to contemplate the better title: The Profit.

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Summary: Masterpiece of all time, by another Lebanese writer...
Review: Quench your thirst with the divine music that lies hidden in the silence of the pages... Indeed this book holds the flame of hope in the midst of deception, a flame to light the darkness, that darkness that has blinded the bird and chained his humming, that humming that will light the darkness of life and eternity... If you have not yet read this book, then wait no longer and enter the realm of truth with the all time Lebanese writer: GIBRAN KHALIL GIBRAN... ( By the way this book deserves a 6 star rating! )

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Summary: Absolutely brilliant and enlightening
Review: I first read The Prophet when I was 18 and trying to find myself. Ironically, after reading this book, I needed to look no further than what I already posessed. It is a pinnacle contribution to the literary world and for believers of any faith, it will touch your soul if read with a willingness to grow.

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Summary: A marvellous book for anybody at a crossroads in their life
Review: This book was given to me by a friend in Canada at a time in my life when everthing was a confused jumble. It has helped me explore my spirituality, accept myself for who I am and put many things in perspective. Each chapter meant something to me and in turn I have recommended it to many friends who are searching for the unattainable or in need of some guidance. I am in no way religious and The Prophet isn't about that. Simple words and phrases lyrically put together made so much sense. In times of crisis it is a book I constantly pick up and re-read and have found great comfort in its pages. It is truly an amazing book and I shall keep on recommending it to my friends.

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Summary: Inspirationally intelligent, spiritual and healing!!!
Review: Three years ago, my life was in the midst of extreme chaos and denial. Then 29 years-old, I had flown my eight-year old daughter to seek a much needed second opinion concerning her newly diagnosed brain tumor half-way across the US. While staying at The Ronald McDonald House in Houston, a place of housing for patients with special medical needs in the Houston area, I stumbled across "The Prophet" in the House's library. I read the entire book that night as my child slept, and it became evident that on some mystical level, I was meant to read Kalil's words of wisdom concerning pain, suffering and love. The book as also helped me to come to terms with my child's passing from this life onto the next and has been one of my inspirational tools in dealing with death, separation and acceptance.

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Summary: This is my bible.
Review: I was 15 then and the Prophet moved me. Now I am turning 25, and I want to rediscover it again...to read this book and absorb it is to live life to the fullest. Carpe Diem!

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Summary: What the book means to me
Review: i read the book a year ago when i was 14 , given to me by my dad at a time when life was rough..and Kahlil Gibran's way of describing human emotions and thoughts is so apt..and so true..its a beautiful book...i think everyone should read it at some point in their lives