The Alchemist, a Novel Extract

‘The Alchemist’ is a text that features in B.Ed. 1^st Year’s General English book (Tribhuvan University). It is a novel extract extracted from the novel “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist.

•Extracted from the novel “The Alchemist”

•Written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist

•Location: Andalusia, Spain

•Characters in the extract:

1. Santiago, a shepherd boy
2. A Moorish-eyed girl
3. Santiago’s father
4. A merchant, the girl’s father

A Brief Summary

Santiago, a young boy in the region of Andalusia wants to travel and see the world, instead of becoming priest as his parents have wanted. His father tells him that a poor family like theirs can’t afford to travel, except the shepherds who can take the sheep to different places and trade them. So, he chooses to become a shepherd. As a shepherd, he leads his sheep to different places, thus fulfilling his desire to travel, and all through his travel, he has the habit of reading books. One time he took his sheep to a village where he went to meet a merchant in order to sell his sheep’s wool. There he happened to meet the merchant’s daughter, a beautiful Moorish-eyed girl, who talked to him in a friendly way and evoked love in him for her. Now, after a year, he is again heading towards that village where he will reach in about four days. All he is thinking about is that Moorish-eyed girl; he is very excited to meet her again, for he is so dearly in love with her.