Paulo Coelho introduces the Read Along of his bestseller, 'The Alchemist'.

The search for consciousness.

An Introduction:

The Alchemist is one of the most famous books of our generation and for fans of Paulo Coelho, it almost needs no introduction nor a commentary. Paulo estimates over 300 million people and counting have read this book, which puts it into the very top 0.01% of all books of fiction sold by a living author - or any author ever.

There are student study notes galore online and for a time in the 1990s the book featured on many high school English literature curricula. My book, The Secret of The Alchemist - featured in Amazon.com’s 20th Century Literary Criticism category and went straight to #1 for weeks and continues in the top 100 regularly - and this was almost 30 years after the first publication of The Alchemist. (Paid subscribers receive a copy of my book here.)

So when I was thinking about how best to introduce this read along I decided to let Paulo speak for himself from an in-depth interview he gave to Juan Arias in 1999. (Paulo Coelho, Confessions of a Pilgrim, HarperCollins, 2001.) Here Paulo gives a simple introduction to his writing of his book:

Juan . - How would you describe yourself?

Paulo - As a pilgrim who travels an endless path. Like the pilgrim who knows of the existence of a treasure, who sees that treasure guided by omens, like the shepherd in The Alchemist. For him, it is important to arrive at the treasure, but when he gets there he sees he is no longer the same, he's changed, he's become someone else. It is the path and the search that forge and change you. I keep searching.

Juan - How much of you is in The Alchemist?

Paulo - In reality, I am all the characters in my books. The only person I’m not is the alchemist. Because the alchemist already knows everything, while I know I don't know everything, there's lots I don't know. Of course, in The Alchemist, I'm the shepherd, the crystal merchant, and even Fatima.

Juan - Why is it that when I read The Alchemist, I feel like you are writing just for me?

Paulo - All that, I think, has to do with the search for consciousness. The key to my work, if we simplify it in the extreme, is what I call the personal story, like in The Alchemist. And although it seems mysterious to us, it’s the reason for our existence. Sometimes it might not be clear and we strain against fate. That's when we feel weak and cowardly. But in the end, our personal story is still there within us and we know why we're here. So, for me, the spiritual search is the search for total consciousness.

Reading Timetable:

Each week this month I will be adding a commentary before we read the following pages below. At the end of each commentary, there will be the opportunity for you to add your comments, thoughts, and reflections with the rest of the Paulo Coelho Read Along community. We’re looking forward to sharing this read and deepening our appreciation of Paulo’s work through your contribution.

(Page numbers will vary based on the edition you are reading and the section names are mine.)

Week One: Friday, March 1st, Pages 1 to 40.

Including scenes:

Part One:

The boy’s name was Santiago.

A repeat of the dream.

A father’s blessing.

Remembering the gypsy.

Meeting the Gypsy and Melchizedek.

The King of Salem.

Follow the Omens.

Melchizedek bids farewell.

Arriving in Africa.

Week Two: Friday, March 8th, Pages 40 to 80.

Including scenes:

The Candy Seller.

The Crystal Merchant.

Working for the Crystal Merchant.

Part Two:

Dreaming of Mecca.

Maktub.

Commercial success.

Leaving today.

Urim and Thummim.

The Englishman.

The Caravan.

Going east.

Alchemical books.

Talk of war.

The silence of the desert.

Week Three: Friday, March 15th, Pages 80 to 122.

Including scenes:

Approaching the oasis.

The Oasis.

The Alchemist.

Fatima and the Hawks.

Meeting the Alchemist.

The ambush.

The Alchemist’s offer.

The Alchemist’s apprentice.

Decision time.

Fatima’s farewell.

The Alchemist’s test.

Week Four: Friday, March 22nd, Pages 122 to 161

Including scenes:

A treacherous heart.

The tribesmen.

Capture.

The challenge - day 1.

Speaking with the desert - day 2.

Miracles - day 3.

The Simum.

The monastery.

The story of the Centurion.

Finding the treasure.

Epilogue.

List of characters:

Santiago: An adventurous young Andalusian shepherd determined to fulfill his Personal Legend, which is to find a treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids.

The girl in the Dream: She leads Santiago to where his treasure lies but he wakes before he sees it.

Santiago’s father: He gives his blessing for Santiago to seek his treasure.

The Wool Merchant: A merchant who buys wool from Santiago on a yearly basis.

The Wool Merchant’s Daughter: The beautiful and intelligent raven-haired daughter of the merchant.

The Gypsy: An old woman living in Tarifa who interprets dreams. She reads palms and uses black-magic iconography, but she also keeps images of Christ.

Melchizedek: The King of Salem. He appears to possess magical powers and helps those pursuing their Personal Legends.

The Barkeeper: A well-meaning bartender who lives in Tangier and speaks only Arabic.

The Candy Seller: A generous vendor in the Tangier marketplace who enjoys his occupation.

The Young Man: A scam artist living in Tangier who speaks Arabic and Spanish.

The Crystal Merchant: A struggling merchant who owns a crystal shop on top of a desolate hill.

The Englishman: A well-educated science student determined to learn the secrets of alchemy by learning from a true alchemist.

Caravan Leader: The bold leader of a caravan traveling across the Sahara Desert from Tangier to Egypt.

The Camel Driver: A friendly former orchard owner and devout Muslim who feels content with his life.

The Alchemist: He dresses in black, rides a white horse, and carries a scimitar, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Elixir of Life.

Fatima: A beautiful and chaste young desert woman who lives at the Oasis.

The Tribal Chieftain of the Oasis: A strict and ruthless tribal chieftain who lives in luxury at the Oasis.

The Tribal Chief: The leader of the warring desert tribe who captures Santiago and puts him to the test.

The Monk: A welcoming Coptic monk living in a monastery near the pyramids of Egypt.

The Robbers at the Pyramids: They beat Santiago so he will give them his treasure.

Plot Summary

Paulo wrote “The Alchemist” in two weeks, in 1987. It is a story, told in “A Thousand and One Nights” and in Rumi’s “Masnavi” and later adapted by Jorge Luis Borges—the version that Coelho first read—of a man who dreams that he must leave home to find a treasure and, upon arriving at his destination, discovers that the treasure is buried in his native land. In Paulo’s telling, the protagonist is an Andalusian shepherd boy who, bedding down with his flock in an abandoned church, dreams of finding a fortune at the Pyramids, in Egypt.

He sells his flock and buys a ticket to Tangier, and in the desert meets an alchemist, from whom he learns that ‘wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.’ When the boy reaches the Pyramids and starts digging, a band of thieves attacks him, even as he explains that he’s searching for gold revealed to him in a dream. The thieves leave the boy for dead, and their leader, as a final insult, tells him that he, too, has had a recurring dream about buried treasure—his is in an abandoned church in Spain—but is not so stupid as to have believed it. The boy is overjoyed and returns to the church, where he unearths a chest of gold coins.

The story is full of allegorical stories within the story and could best be described as a fable. There are multiple themes focused on life’s journey and can be seen as a continuation of The Pilgrimage as a statement of Paulo’s new philosophy on life and the universe, and for fans of The Pilgrimage, this next book is Paulo’s New Sword.

So we will commence our slow read of The Alchemist next week. (Friday, March 1st.)

The Alchemist is full of symbolism and features multiple concepts such as The Soul of The World, The Language of the World, Omens, and so on, as well as objects that carry significant meaning, including The Sword, Urim and Thummin, Hawks, The Scarab Beetle to name a few. Many of these symbols are taken from ancient alchemical texts.

In my BONUS MATERIAL this week, I have examined and commented on these symbols in-depth and they will assist your appreciation of the nuances Paulo is bringing to his book. They are like ‘secret keys’ that unlock additional layers of meaning.