The Pursuit of Dreams Sometimes in life, when a person wants something with enough passion, everything seems to go perfectly accordingly to how it was planned. Paulo Coelho, the author of the Alchemist, calls this desire a personal legend. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their personal legend is, and at that point in their lives everything is clear and possible. However, as time goes on, a mysterious force seems to blind us of …showed first 75 words of 1055 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1055 total…suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits--a far cry from Saint- Exup‚ry's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility. Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls. Bibliography Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. San Francisco: Harper Flamingo, 1993. Hudson, Gail. "A Magical Little Volume." Rev. of The Alchemist. Kirkus Reviews 1 May 1993.