PAULO COELHO, THE SPIRITUAL MASTER OF LETTERS

By Marytreesa jenson

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian poet and has become one of the most widely read and loved authors in the world. Especially renowned for The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes, he has sold more than 140 million books worldwide and has been translated into 72 languages. The readers can identify the characters of Coelho as one among them. So that the characters attain self actualization, readers also get the impulse of going for a quest in search of their own inner self.

PAULO COELHO AS A WRITER

          His novels can be called as inspirational for they have the power to raise a person from utter dejection to a state of high self esteem. Being chosen from the lower strata of society, his characters exhibit a tendency to go in search of material possessions and physical pleasures. Santiago in The Alchemist Maria in Eleven Minutes Chantal Prym in The Devil and Miss Prym had received knowledge about life.

          Coelho tries to be unique in his real life, as in his novels, was successful in bringing out his rebellious ideas through his inspirational novels. Coelho believes that the personal transformation holds the key of self realization. Coelho draws inspiration from daily life. He considered that, experience as the best way to learn.

          The year 1990, brought Coelho’s Brida, the story of a woman whom he happened to meet on pilgrimage. He believes that Brida is the woman he was searching for and identifies as the projection of his own feminine side. In 1992, he published his next autobiographic work The Valkyier. It depicts his forty days adventure in the Mojave Desert with his wife. His Fifth Mountain published in 1996, brought him popularity.

AWARDS

          In 1996, when The Alchemist topped the best seller list, Coelho conferred two prestigious awards, the ‘Super Grizane Cavour Book’ award and ‘Floiano International award’. In 1998, he won the Brazilian ‘Comendator de ordem do Rio Branco’. In 1999, French government conferred on him the highest honor by making him a Chevalier de I’ ordre National de la Legion d’ honor’.

          Thus through all his novels, Coelho says that the fruit of the journey is the journey itself; the experience and knowledge one gains throughout is the real treasure one can achieve trough his or her life journey.

OTHER WORKS

Aleph, The Zhahir, Like the Flowing River, Veronica Decides to Die, The Pilgrimage. Etc