The Prophet
1923
- poetry
- classics
- literature & fiction
- religion
- american prose poems
- mysticism
- spiritual life
The story
The Prophet is a book of 26 poetic essays written in English in 1923 by the Lebanese-American artist, philosopher and writer Khalil Gibran. In the book, the prophet Almustafa who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses many issues of life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
What it’s like
Short, incantatory sentences that move like scripture read aloud at dusk: this is a book to sit with slowly, one aphorism at a time, rather than to race through. The prose is rhythmic and rich in images of the seashore, vineyards, hills, wind, and bread and wine, with a hushed, almost liturgical cadence that rewards reading aloud. Its mood is contemplative and tender, a gentle mysticism with warm, unhurried calm and a faint ache of leave-taking that never tips into despair. It suits a rainy Sunday, a quiet evening with a single lamp, or a moment of stillness before sleep, and it works as a slow bedside companion. Structure is simple: a stranger on the verge of departure answers a crowd's questions on love, work, grief, freedom, and death, each answer a short self-contained meditation. There is no violence, no sexual content, and no fear; the only darkness is the grave, approached with consolation. It is for readers who want spiritual reflection that is lyrical rather than doctrinal, and for anyone who finds comfort in patient, measured sentences that ask them to slow down.
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