17 The Alchemist Facts: Read This Famous Novel By Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist is an allegorical novel and self-help book by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.

The novel follows the story of a young Andalusian shepherd as he follows a recurring dream in search of a great treasure. The novel follows his quest as he meets a legendary Alchemist, who guides him towards his 'Personal Legend'.

Though the novel was first published in 1988, it did not receive much traction until it was published in English in 1993. Since then, it has been a constant bestseller- with many readers praising it for its beautiful message and references to spiritual awakening. Read on to learn more about the novel's story, behind-the-scenes and possible film adaptations.

Main Story Of The Alchemist

The book mainly focuses on the young and daring Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd, who is visited by a recurrent dream. He experiences the same dream every time he sleeps beneath a sycamore tree that has grown from the ruins of a church - in which a young child instructs him to search for treasure among the Egyptian pyramids.

To his surprise, Santiago consults to interpret the dream and advises him to follow his vision and travel to Egypt.

Santiago's counsel is echoed by a mysterious old man named Melchizedek, who claims that he is, in fact, the King of Salem. He tells Santiago that visiting the pyramids and finding the great treasure is part of his Personal Legend.

The mysterious Melchizedek persuades Santiago to sell his flock of sheep and travel to Tangier. Unfortunately, Santiago is robbed by a criminal as soon as he enters the city of Tangier, forcing him to seek employment at a local crystal shop.

The cautious merchant imparts various lessons to Santiago, who, in turn, urges the merchant to take chances to expand his business. Santiago, as a result of his calculated risks, becomes wealthy in just one year.

However, he is still plagued by his dream, which was the guiding force behind his journey. To continue living out his personal legend—which is finding wealth in the pyramids—Santiago chooses to cash in his earnings and travel.

He meets an Englishman who is training to become an alchemist while traveling with a caravan over the Sahara Desert toward Egypt.

On the way, he picks up a lot of knowledge from the Englishman.

For starters, he discovers that a stone of legend known as the Emerald Tablet holds the secret to alchemy. The Master Work, which combines the Philosophers' Stone- a solid that can change metals into precious metals- with the Elixir of Life- a liquid that can cure all diseases- is thought to be the pinnacle of alchemy.

Santiago finds out the Englishman is going with the caravan to Al-Fayoum, a Saharan oasis where a 200-year-old alchemist lives. The Englishman intends to learn about the deepest secrets of alchemy from the mysterious Alchemist.

To avoid the increasingly brutal tribal battles raging in the desert, the caravan must make a lengthy stay in Al-Fayoum. During this period, Santiago falls in love with Fatima, a resident of the oasis.

While taking a desert stroll, Santiago interprets a sign that predicts an assault on the previously neutral oasis.

He alerts the tribal leaders to the attack, and Al-Fayoum successfully repels the assault as a result. When the Alchemist learns about Santiago's vision, he invites him on a journey into the desert, where he imparts wisdom on the value of following Santiago's Personal Legend and listening to his heart.

In order to complete his trek to the pyramids, he persuades Santiago to abandon Fatima and the caravan, and he offers to join them for the final part of his journey.

The Alchemist shares a lot of his knowledge about the Soul of the World with Santiago as they go further through the desert.

When an Arab band of soldiers captures them, they are only a few days away from the pyramids. The Alchemist informs the soldiers that Santiago is a strong alchemist who will turn into the wind in three days in exchange for their lives and gives all of Santiago's money to the tribe.

This puts Santiago in a predicament, as he has no clue how to turn himself into the wind.

He thinks about how to accomplish this mission for three days and prays to the 'Hand That Wrote It All' on the third day. In doing so, he manages to vanish at the height of the storm and return to the other side of the camp.

The tribespeople, convinced of Santiago's power, let the captives go free. The Alchemist accompanies Santiago until they reach a Coptic monastery a few hours away from the pyramids.

There, he shows Santiago how to use the Philosopher's Stone to transform lead into gold.

He gifts the gold to Santiago and takes his leave. At the base of the pyramids, Santiago starts to dig for riches, but two guys approach him and beat him up.

After hearing Santiago describe the vision in his dream, they assume he must be poor and let him be. Unconvinced, one of the men tells Santiago about his own dream as he prepares to leave in an effort to demonstrate the futility of dreams.

Coincidentally, the man's dream is about a treasure hidden beneath a sycamore tree in a deserted church in Spain. Santiago recognizes the chapel as the same one where he first had his dream, and he now knows where his treasure is.

Upon returning to Spain, he discovers a treasure box full of riches and diamonds concealed beneath the tree. He decides to take it to Al-Fayoum, where Fatima is waiting for him.

Awards won

'The Alchemist' author Paulo Coelho has won many awards in the years following its publication. The most prominent among these are:

• The 2004 Nielson Gold Book Award
• A Guinness World Record for the book translated into and published in most languages by a living author
• The 2002 Corine International Award for Best Fiction
• The 1995 Grand Prix Litteraire Elle.

Characters In The Novel

The main characters who play a huge part in the novel are-

• Santiago- The book's main character, who is a young shepherd from Spain. After dreaming about a great treasure, he embarks on a metaphorical quest to find it.
• The Alchemist- He is the title character of the book. He is a 200-year-old master of alchemy who harbors massive knowledge about the subject and helps guide Santiago in his quest to reach his' Personal Legend'.
• Melchizedek.- In reality, Melchizedek is an elderly man well-known in the Bible. In the novel, he serves as Santiago's mentor by educating Santiago about the idea of the 'Personal Legend.'
• The Crystal Merchant- Although the crystal merchant is aware of his personal legend, he decides against following it and runs a crystal shop in Tangier instead, resulting in a life filled with regret.
• The Englishman- A man Santiago encounters when traveling with a caravan. He is seeking the Al Fayoum oasis resident alchemist to master the art of ALchemy.
• Fatima- Fatima is a desert-dwelling woman who Santiago falls in love with. She can interpret foreshadowing signs.

Did You Know?

• The novel's title is based on alchemists, people who can magically change the structure of substances and make them more precious- for, e.g., turn lead into gold. Alchemists are most popularly associated with the 'philosophers stone,' an object of legend that can allegedly create the elixir of life, which, when consumed, can help a person maintain their youth.
• Paulo Coelho wrote the entirety of 'The Alchemist' in just a few weeks. According to him, the book was already 'written in his soul'.
• Despite being such a massive success today, the Alchemist initially did not perform so well. Disheartened by the poor performance of the book, the author and his wife set off on a 40-day retreat in the Mojave Desert.
• The book found immense success after Coello partnered with HarperCollins to publish the book in English.
• The original novel was written in Portuguese.
• Like the protagonist of his book, Paulo Coelho also believes in following omens. One of the rituals he follows before writing every new book is finding a white feather. He then runs the feather across every page of his manuscript when he is done.
• Though Warner Bros officially bought the rights to produce a film adaptation of the novel in 1994, the project still hasn't come to fruition.