The Prophet

A stunning new hardcover edition–with a full linen case, copper stamping, turquoise gilded edges, and colored endpapers–of one of the world’s most beloved and popular spiritual classics, featuring a new foreword by Rupi Kaur

A Penguin Classics Hardcover

The most famous work of spiritual fiction of the twentieth century, The Prophet is rooted in Kahlil Gibran’s own experience as an immigrant and provides inspiration to anyone feeling adrift in a world in flux. As a prophet named Almustafa is about to board a ship to travel back to his homeland after twelve years in exile, he is stopped by a group of people who ask him to share his wisdom before he leaves. In twenty-eight poetic essays, he does so, offering profound and timeless insights on many aspects of life, including love, pain, friendship, family, beauty, religion, joy, sorrow, and death.

An immediate success when first published in 1923, The Prophet is a modern classic, having been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than ten million copies in the United States alone. The message it imparts, of finding divinity through love, made it the bible of 1960s culture and continues to touch hearts and minds across generations and national borders. This edition is illustrated with twelve of Gibran’s famous visionary paintings and features a foreword by Rupi Kaur.

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Contributors

Kahlil Gibran was born in Lebanon in 1883. In 1912 he settled in New York City and devoted himself to writing (in both Arabic and English) and to painting. His books have sold more than ten million copies in English alone and have won the love of readers all over the world. His mystical drawings and paintings were compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. Gibran died in 1931.

Rupi Kaur (foreword) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the poetry collections Milk and Honey, The Sun and Her Flowers, and Home Body, which together have sold more than four million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. Born in Punjab, India, she moved to Canada at the age of four and lives in Toronto.