From Library Journal
Gibran, author of The Prophet, here offers reflections on such varying topics as life, love, courage, liberty, truth, and understanding that are designed to uplift the soul in everyday living. This edition contains illustrations by the author.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
No book of twentieth-century inspirational literature has been more successful than The Prophet by the Lebanese Christian U.S. immigrant Kahlil Gibran (1883^-1931), but no other of Gibran's books has been nearly as successful. Chances are this one, made up of selections from writings not previously translated into English, won't be, either. Gibran's mundanely florid way of uttering sentiments full of the kind of radiant, sometimes pointless universalism now satirized by the likes of Al Franken's terrifyingly bland self-help guru Stuart Smalley has never been bettered, though, and his fans will want to peruse this "new" strand of his pearls of wisdom. Ray Olson


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French, Arabic

ANNOTATION

Poet, philosopher and artist, Khalil Gibran was a man whose fame and influence spread far beyond his native Lebanon. Drawn from Gibran's prose, poetry and letters previously available only in Arabic, The Eye of the Prophet is a source of enlightenment and reflection to guide readers through daily life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Kahlil Gibran is known to Western readers for his phenomenally successful poem The Prophet, which sold over six million copies worldwide since its publication in 1923. The Eye of the Prophet is a startling new collection of Gibran's writings translated from Arabic into French and now to English. Here Gibran is the poetic, philosophical moralist, grounded in Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, questing for the best in humanity, refusing to separate man from the natural world. The ordinary work and life of man has the potential to be inherently noble, Gibran believes, if man could only enact his affairs with the sublimity of nature's creations. His descriptions resound with the great dignity and freedom of animals, birds, the seasons, oceans, clouds. Sometimes amazingly modern, he calls on men to value women as mother, sister, and friend, not as a possession to dominate. He is a poet's eye; he abhors the "tentacles of government" and calls on citizens to question all ideologies. He hopes for a Lebanon free of strife and calls to account politicians and power-seekers to value the common man, woman, and child and their need for peace. Gibran writes about life's great moments and passages (The First Kiss, The First Glance, The Mystery of Love, Youth); eternal essences (Earth, The Nature of Woman, Marriage, Love, Truth, Poetry) and grapples with nationalism, religion, and spiritual growth. The Eye of The Prophet blends Christian, Moslem, and Buddhist ideals into a great spiritual tapestry that transcends all cultural divisions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This is a collection of Lebanese poet Gibran's writings translated into English. The main theme of these selections is that our life and labor are inherently noble. "Life streams out of a man's inner self and not in what surrounds him," Gibran challenges. The most compelling poem in this collection is "Come Near and Tell Me Who You Are." Gibran writes: "Are you the politician who says, I shall exploit my country for the soul benefit of myself... Are you that honest, hard-working man. He whose fairness brings as much profit to himself as others." Johnny Cash's (yes, that Johnny Cash) narration gives an appropriate folk air to this collection. Gibran had quite a following, so this is a useful addition to most libraries.-Ravonne A. Green, Emmanuel Coll. Lib., Franklin Springs, Ga.

BookList - Ray Olson