The Collected Works (Everyman's Library) [Hardcover]

Kahlil Gibran (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2007

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

For the first time, all the major works of this beloved writer are gathered together in one hardcover volume.

Poet, artist, and mystic, Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 to a poor Christian family in Lebanon and immigrated to the United States as an adolescent. His masterpiece, The Prophet, a book of poetic essays that he began while still a youth in Lebanon, is one of the most cherished books of our time and has sold millions of copies in more than twenty languages since its publication in 1923. But all of Gibran’s works—essays, stories, parables, and prose poems—are imbued with equally powerful simplicity and wisdom, whether they are addressing marriage or children, friendship or grief, work or pleasure. Perhaps no other twentieth-century writer has touched the hearts and minds of so remarkably varied and widespread a readership.

Included in this volume are The Prophet, The Wanderer, Jesus the Son of Man, A Tear and a Smile, Spirits Rebellious, Nymphs of the Valley, Prose Poems, The Garden of the Prophet, The Earth Gods, Sand and Foam, The Forerunner, and The Madman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Kahlil Gibran] speaks about fundamental things—those which are, or should be, a part of every human life—love, giving, food and drink, work, sorrow and joy, children, clothes and housing, buying and selling, crime and punishment, freedom, reason and passion, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion and death . . . Like most wisdom, most of what he has to tell is ancient, the possession of all men who have thought much and hard about fundamental things . . . But on it all there is also the imprint of a rich and unusual personality . . . Gibran offers no short-cuts to happiness, no easily mastered formulae for successful living. Essentially, he bids you look closely into your own heart and mind.”

—NEW YORK TIMES

About the Author

Kahlil Gibran was born in 1883 in Lebanon and died in New York in 1931. His family emigrated to the United States in 1895. In his early teens, the artistry of Gibran's drawings caught the eye of his teachers and he was introduced to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day, who encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. A publisher used some of Gibran's drawings for book covers in 1898, and Gibran held his first art exhibition in 1904 in Boston. In 1908, Gibran went to study art with Auguste Rodin in Paris for two years. He later studied art in Boston. While most of Gibran's early writing was in Arabic, most of his work published after 1918 was in English. Gibran's best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 26 poetic essays.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 880 pages
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; 1st edition (October 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307267075
• ISBN-13: 978-0307267078
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gibran Redux, January 2, 2008

By 

Book Worm (Boston MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Works (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

Ever since Kahlil Gibran published his first English book The Madman in 1918, people have either admired or despised his work. One thing remains: folks keep reading it. With this latest anthology, Knopf has put together under one cover all their Gibran works, including the poet's illustrations. Trouble is the reproductions are poorly printed, and the unsigned Introduction disappoints. Too bad the Knopf editors didn't take more care in presenting an author that has earned the distinguished house mega bucks for more than 80 years.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book! Highly Recommended, January 7, 2009

By 

Colin A. McKenzie "colkenzie" (Kingston, Jamaica W.I.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Collected Works (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

Let me encourage you all, get a copy of this book and read a paragraph or two "a day; this will keep the devil away". Kahlil Gibran the Collected Works (Everyman's Library) contains some of Gibran's best works (The Madman, The Prophet, Sand and Foam, Jesus the Son of Man, Spirits Rebellious) in one volume. In addition, the book contains more than eighty of his drawings.

Gibran is a Lebanese (-American; by immigration) philosopher, poet, and artist. His works are about love, freedom, loving-kindness, beauty and death; "...therein lies [our] honour and [our] reward".

Without hesitation, I highly recommend this inspiring and enlightening book to everyone.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, July 25, 2008

By 

Jeffrey Albrecht (La Crosse, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Works (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

This is a great collection. Inspiring, enlightening, engrossing, touching,... the best of Khalil. It's a collection of his english works. Most of his other works are collected in the Treasury of Khalil Gibran series, which I'd recommend, as well.