Inspirations Study Guide

Paulo Coelho Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 24 August 1947. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He is a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?" After researching, Coelho concluded a writer "always wears glasses and never combs his hair" and has a "duty and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation," amongst other things. At 17, Coelho's introversion and opposition to following a traditional path led to his parents committing him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Coelho later remarked "It wasn't that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn't know what to do... They did not do that to destroy me; they did that to save me." At his parents' wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and becoming immersed in the drug culture of the 1960s. Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to Paulo being associated with Satanism and occultism, due to the content of some songs. In 1974, Coelho was arrested for "subversive" activities by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist, and theatre director before pursuing his writing career. In 1986, Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in MOMENTUM northwestern Spain, a turning point in his life. On the path, Coelho had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In a 1986 interview, Coelho stated “I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water -- to use the metaphor in "The Alchemist,” I was working, I had a person who I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer." Coelho would leave his lucrative Paulo Coelho, career as a songwriter and pursue writing full-time. In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1986 he contributed Inspirations: Selection from Classic Literature. to the Practical Manual of Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves since he considered it “of bad quality." After making the pilgrimage to Santiago de New York: Penguin Classics, 2010 Compostela in 1986, Coelho wrote The Pilgrimage. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house who made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint. He subsequently found a larger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist became a Brazilian bestseller. The Alchemist has gone on to sell more than 65 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling books in history, and has been translated into more than 70 languages, the 71st being Maltese, winning the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author. Since the publication of The Alchemist, Coelho has generally written one novel every two years including By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Fifth Mountain, Veronika Decides to Die, Study Guide The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, Like the Flowing River, The Valkyries and The Witch of Portobello. This dates back to The Pilgrimage; while trying to overcome his procrastination of launching his writing career, Coelho said "If I see a require critical thinking? How will critical thinking be necessary for success in white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new college? book." Coelho found a white feather in the window of a shop, and began writing that day. In total, Coelho has published 29 books. Two of them -- The Pilgrimage and The The Prince Valkyries -- are autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are fictional, although Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance. He is one of the main rooted in his life experiences. Others, like Maktub and The Manual of the Warrior of Light, are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings. In total, founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, playwright, and a civil Coelho has sold more than 100 million books in over 150 countries worldwide, and servant of the Florentine Republic. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, poetry, his works have been translated into 67 languages. He is the all-time bestselling and some of the most well-known personal correspondence in the Italian language. His position in the regime of Florence as Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Portuguese language author. Republic of Florence lasted from 1498 to 1512, a period in which the Medici were not in power. Machiavelli's most well-known writing was, however, after this period, during the time when the Medici recovered power, and Machiavelli was removed from WATER all positions of responsibility. Introduction “The gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man Coelho believes water equals new birth, beginnings, transformation into new dreams who neglects what is actually done for what should be done moves towards self and ideas. How is being a first year student a new beginning, what are your ideas and destruction rather than self preservation.” dreams, how do you anticipate being transformed in college? Coelho argues fear can “…a prince must be slow to believe allegations and to take action and must watch he show us how strength can be limited to the stranger parts of the human being. As you does not come to be afraid of his own shadow; his behavior must be tempered by enter college what are your fears? How can you find unknown resources of strength humanity and prudence so that over confidence does not make him rash or excessive within yourself? How can you turn fear into strength? What is the meaning of the distrust make him unbearable.” expression “to walk through the looking glass?” In your first year of college will there “…many men were better at not making mistakes themselves than at correcting then be times when you will have various interpretations of reality? in others.” “…a wise prince should rely on what he controls, not on what he cannot control.” The Ugly Duckling “…everyone realizes how praiseworthy it is for a prince to honour his word and to be Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his straightforward rather than crafty in his dealings…” children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” "The Snow Queen,” “Therefore one must be a fox in order to recognize traps and a lion to frighten off "The Little Mermaid,” "Thumbelina,” "The Little Match Girl,” and "The Ugly wolves” What does this quote teach us about not being manipulated and not being Duckling.” During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children bullied? worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into “…the deceiver will always find someone ready to be deceived.” more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and “…men in general judge by their eyes rather than by their hands…everyone sees what animated films. Why was the ugly duckling, considered ugly? How was the ugly you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” duckling treated differently in the wild as compared to the duck yard? What did the What do these quotes teach us about minding our own business, not judging others, ugly duckling anticipate would happen to him when he approached the swans? Why about how we can change ourselves and not control or change others? did the ugly duckling feel glad about the suffering and hardships he had endured? What does Hans Christian Anderson mean “a good heart is never proud?” In the end Looking Glass why did everyone find the ugly duckling beautiful? What will you learn about your Lewis Carroll was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and identity in college and how will you change your perception of yourself? photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" Tales From The Thousand and One Nights and "Jabberwocky,” all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. He is noted for his This is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled facility at word play, logic, and fantasy, and there are societies dedicated to the in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The of the world, including the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and New Arabian Nights' Entertainment.

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