Books I Love - The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
From Saint-Exupéry’s dedication within the book:
I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have serious reason; he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children – although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication: To Leon Werth when he was a little boy.
This wonderful and touching book was given to me when I was nine years old as a prize at the end of the school year. I still have that particular copy with its slightly ragged “Presented to” bookplate glued inside.
It is a tale about a prince from a tiny asteroid, his beloved rose, a snake and a fox and a little sheep inside a box. It is about an aviator who gave up drawing at the age of 6 when he realised that adults could never understand and who grew up to be a sensible man. An aviator whose plane came down in the middle of the desert. Who met the Little Prince, learned from him, and then let him go.
When my children were young there was an animated adaptation based on the book that they showed on the ABC (in Australia). It centred around the Little Prince’s travels through space with his friend the fox. It was just as delightful and touching as the book, and I remember watching it with my kids. My son even dressed up as the Little Prince for the school’s book parade, with his green outfit and his yellow scarf and blond hair. If you ever get the chance, I’d recommend watching.
The author, Antoine De Saint-Exupéry was himself an aviator and like the aviator protagonist of the story had had his own experience of crashing in the Sahara Desert.
He wrote The Little Prince at the height of the second world war, not long before his own death in mysterious circumstances. Despite his age and the lingering effects of various injuries from previous crashes, Saint-Exupéry had been determined to do his part and fly in WWII. But on 31 July 1944 he took off in his plane for his last flight to take reconnaissance photos and was never seen again. According to an article on the WWII Museum, New Orleans website (that you can find here) Saint-Exupéry was officially declared “missing in action, presumed shot down by the enemy” eight days later. His identity bracelet and the remains of his plane were eventually found in the late nineties but the mystery of what actually happened is still unclear.
An online article in Plane and Pilot Magazine (found here) suggested the possibility that due to his injury issues and depression, he may have chosen to end his final flight on his terms. An echoing of the Little Prince’s choice to leave earth and go back home. The parallels are there but I guess we will never know for sure.
I hope that the author, the real-life aviator, found the Little Prince and was comforted in the end.
And remember the fox’s wise words to 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.”
You can find The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry in any bookshop worth visiting.