The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars Charming and Not for Children When he was a little boy, the narrator of Le Petit Prince (1943) gave up becoming an artist because adults thought his drawing of a boa constrictor who’s swallowed an elephant was a hat. Now an adult, he’s all alone in the Sahara Desert thousands and thousands of miles from any human habitation, trying to repair his airplane (a matter of life and death), when a little guy suddenly appears and asks him to draw him a sheep. As the narrator can’t seem to draw a satisfactory sheep, he finally draws a box and says the sheep is inside it, which does the trick. Thus begins the narrator’s time with the Little Prince, which happened, we learn, six years ago and which the narrator has never forgotten. As the Little Prince never answers questions, only asks them, persistently, the narrator only gradually learns his story: he left his tiny home “planet” (asteroid B612, which turns so fast that you can see multiple sunsets each day and has three miniature volcanoes, a flower, and some baobab seeds) to learn how to deal with his temperamental and manipulative rose, whom (he realizes after leaving his planet) he loves. On his way to earth, drawn by a flock of passing birds, he stops off at a series of small worlds inhabited by solitary grownups, a king (who commands you to do what you’re going to do anyway), a vain person (who expects you to applaud and compliment him), a drunkard (who drinks because he’s ashamed and is ashamed because he drinks), a businessman (who has no time for loafing cause he’s gotta keep counting his possessions, the stars), a lamplighter (whose world is so small that he’s constantly having to light or extinguish the one streetlight as day and night rapidly pass), and a geographer (who has been too busy doing geography to explore his world). And so to Earth, where there are orders of magnitude more of each of those “bizarre” adults: “111 kings ... 7,000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000 drunkards, 311,000,000 conceited men; that is to say, about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups.” During his year on Earth, the Little Prince has met a wise fox, who suggests he be tamed, a snake, who promises to help the Prince return to his home world (and his rose) with a little bite, and then finally the narrator, who befriends the Prince and hears his story and learns to be less uptight about his adult concerns (e.g., running out of water in the desert with a damaged airplane to repair). My high school French teacher took us to see the Bob Fosse movie adaptation (which we enjoyed for the cool songs and dances), I first read the book in a university French class, and I often listen to the wonderful (though unfortunately abridged) 1954 French adaptation on record with Gerard Philipe as the narrator, excellent voice actors for the other characters, and neat background music. And I don’t think it’s a book for children. It’s more a book for adults trying to remember being kids or for adults nostalgically remembering when they thought about remembering being kids. It is full of poetic, potent life wisdom, that would probably go right over kids’ heads, like: “Je suis responsable de ma rose.” (I am responsible for my rose.) And “on ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisble pour les yeux." (one only sees well with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.) Perhaps the messages re childhood and adulthood and life and love and perception and what’s important etc. get a little . . . strongly delivered. . . But the conversations in the book are meaningful, humorous, and strange, the ending is moving and ambiguous, and the illustrations by the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry are distinctive charming, minimalist, and beautiful. It is a uniquely appealing work. View all my reviews
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