Customer Reviews

The Prophet

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Prophet was given to me when I was 16 years old. As I grew to love and understand it, I made it a guideline for my development. It became my standard gift for my good friends weddings and Birthdays. I have loaned my copy out and not get it back, numerous times. Now I am 78 years old and am having to replace it again. Never have I found it so easy to buy and recieve. Thank You, Jean Logsdon

The Prophet is Kahlil Gibran's best known work in the western world with over 25 million copies sold. It is said that Kahlil spent more than 20 years writing The Prophet and held onto the manuscript for 4 years before finally releasing it for publication. Kahlil referred to The Prophet as the "strange little book" or "the little black book" in reference to its cover. The working title of this strange little book was "The Counsels" - the final version consisting of 26 `verses'.

In The Prophet the philosophy of East and West meet in a union unparalleled in the literature of the early 20th century. Kahlil acknowledged that he was inspired by a multitude of writers and that is evident throughout The Prophet. Most notably the visions of William Blake, who Kahlil referred to as "the poet-prophet par-excellence" (incidentally one of Kahlil's mentors the sculptor Rodin called Kahlil the 20th century Blake), The Prophet was also heavily influenced by the Bible, Buddhism, Hinduism, the English Romantics, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ameen Rihani, and Christian and Sufi mysticism.

When The Prophet was first published the early 20th century critic Claude Bragdon wrote of its, "extraordinary dramatic power, deep erudition, lightning-like intuition, lyrical lift and metrical mastery with which the message is presented, and the beauty, beauty, beauty, which permeates the entire pattern." Wow that's a powerful critique...and let's listen to his close friend and one of his biographers Mary Haskell who wrote to Kahlil after she received a copy of The Prophet:

"Beloved Kahlil, The Prophet came today, and it did more than realize my hopes. For it seemed in its compacted form to open yet further new doors of desire and imagination in me, and to create about itself the universe in nimbus......This book will be held as one of the treasures of English literature. And in our darkness we will open it to find ourselves again and the heaven and earth within ourselves. Generations will not exhaust it, but instead, generation after generation will find in the book what they would fain be - and it will be better loved as men grow riper and riper. It is the most loving book ever written."

I can add little more than that...other than Haskell had a very good point.

I recieved this book the first time I met my father when I was a teenager. It is a gift I hold dear to this day over 30 years later. It is thought provoking. The truths are as relevant today as they were in the early 1970s.

"The Prophet" is a powerful book of topical wisdom by Lebanese author and poet Khalil Ghibran. The book begins when a fictional prophet arrives mysteriously by ship and is taken in by a group of people who he remains among for several years. Before he leaves, he wants to thank them for their kindness but has nothing to give, so he gathers the people together and answers their questions with his wisdom on various aspects of life. The premise is similar to that of the Tao Te Ching and Lao Tzu imparting his wisdom to a guard. Every chapter is beautifully written in simple yet profound prose. Balance and the oneness of life are big themes. Ghibran is so artful in his use of metaphors and doesn't waste a single word. If ever there were a great gift book, this is one. I think it's a classic that everyone should read once but most will find themselves returning to many times over the years.

Everyone carries an omnificent quality within themselves. Some individuals have not grasped this concept. Some individuals do not realize that a simple change can create a huge transformation. Would you ask an important figure for advice before she or he left town? Their advice would be elements about life that you already knew, but seemingly forgot. There are simple fundamentals to follow that can make you a better person within your own eyes.

Gibran uses The Prophet Almustafa to enlighten readers with simple tactics they can use to live a more pure and genuine life. How many of us love, go to work, have clothes, feel pain, and own friendships? You do not have to be religious to appreciate this book. Gibran's classic takes common stress factors that everyone can relate to, and shares guidance on how to simplify it in your life: "When you work with love, you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another" ( p. 26). Read this book and share it. Think about the most valuable portion to you in this book. Share that portion with another person.

I think everyone should read this book. It was so very moving. As soon as I finished reading it I started it over.

This book still holds all the philosophical magic 70 years after Gibran wrote it. He managed to distill some basic truths about life and they are as applicable now as they were then.

A decade past, I knew very little about the writer/artist/poet/prophet, Kahlil Gibran. I am happy to say, that today, I am well acquainted with his work. The Prophet was the first book I read written by Gibran, and ever since that first reading I have immersed myself in his extraordinarily consummate skill of exquisitely crafted words. To say the Prophet or any other writings by Kahlil Gibran is simply fine literature is to say the mysterious of the soul are mediocre. I recommend that if you have not touched upon any of Kahlil Gibran's books, that you consider the Prophet as a good start. You will not be disappointed. A few other extraordinary works of art by Gibran: The Voice Of The Master; The Beloved; Sand And Foam; The Broken Wings; Between Night And Morn; The Earth Gods; and one of my personal favorites, though not so much a "story," but rather a collection of personal letters to dearly beloved friends: Kahlil Gibran: A Self-Portrait.

A book to be treasured. A tremendous poet dealing mostly with Christianity and spiritual love. His insights on topics of life are to be cherished. I have read his treasured poems many times and brightened the lives of others by sharing. This book was highly inspiring during my emotional spiritual journey to discover my biological roots. I listed The Prophet as a key reference source in my book Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child.

Adoption Detective: Memoir of an Adopted Child

I read The Prophet years ago as a freshman college student & wished I'd read it in high school.

The lessons in this book can really positively impact the life of a teen or young person.

I've found another book that is geared towards young people that also gets this same message across, in an epic adventure way that teens like.

The Prophetic Tales of No Child Left Behind

[...]

I stumbled across this book & decided to buy it for a niece that's a senior in high school. Its very rough, with some errors but the impact it had on her life, was similar to the impact The Prophet had on mine. If you like Kahlil Gibran, I think you could appreciate this also.