One of the most published and translated books in the world, The Little Prince captivates the reader with its story of a pilot stranded in the Sahara after his plane breaks down, and a he meets a little boy with golden hair (the little prince) who has ‘fallen’ to earth from another planet.
The Little Prince
My rating
5 / 5
Self-Purchased copy
Author
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Publisher
Rupa Publications
Genre
Classic Fiction
Number of Pages
104
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As the pilot tries to repair his plane, the little man requests him to draw a sheep as well as a box to keep the sheep in, so that it may not harm a flower he cares for—and therein begins a friendship that leads us to re-examine the many things we take for granted in our everyday life. The little prince talks of his own tiny planet, his beloved rose, the serious threat of baobabs, and of his travels to different planets.
Part fantasy, part fable, this is written as much for children as for adults, provoking you to think about its message ‘what is essential, is invisible to the eye’.
- Top Quotes from The Little Prince -
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them”
I have good reason to believe that there is an old rat living somewhere on my planet. I hear him at night. You could judge that old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. That way his life will depend on your justice. But you'll pardon him each time for economy's sake. There's only one rat.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. More than a half century later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power. The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. "In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey," the narrator recalls. "Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket." And so begins their dialogue, which stretches the narrator's imagination in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions.
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