The Little Prince

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The Little Prince is the most translated French literary masterpiece. It is a fairy tale book for both children and adults. The author wrote in the dedication: "To Leon Werth, please forgive me for dedicating this book to an adult. I did so for three important reasons: First, this adult is my dearest friend in the world; second, this adult understands everything, even the books written for children; third, this adult lives in France, where he is hungry and in need of comfort. If all these reasons are still not enough, then I would like to dedicate this book to the child I once was. All adults were once children (though only a few remember this). So, I have changed my dedication to: To the childhood of Leon Werth." The Little Prince is a fairy tale with a unique and intricate plot, rich in poetry and philosophy. It uses the technique of in reverse order, with clear and concise language, making it highly readable. Due to the author's use of love throughout the story, French critics consider it a poetic fairy tale, reflecting the author's longing for friendship. Amazon Prime offers the adorable The Little Prince.
Book Description
Few stories are as widely read and universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard's new translation of the beloved classic—published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's birth—beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry's unique and gifted style. Howard has excelled in bringing the English text as close as possible to the French, in language, style, and most importantly, spirit. The artwork in this new edition has been restored to match in detail and color Saint-Exupéry's original artwork. Harcourt is proud to introduce the definitive English-language edition of The Little Prince. It will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.
Amazon.com
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 half a 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 appearance 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. The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It is a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy as Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. And despite its tone of gentle bemusement, Saint-Exupéry pulls off some fine satirical touches too. There’s the king, for example, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-man (or one-boy) judiciary: "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." The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and an lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence. Yet this tale is ultimately a tender one—a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, which never turns into Peter Pan-style treacle. Such delicacy of tone can present real headaches for a translator, and in her 1943 translation, Katherine Woods sometimes wandered off the mark, giving the text a slightly wooden or didactic accent. Happily, Richard Howard (who did a fine nip-and-tuck job on Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parme in 1999) has streamlined and simplified to wonderful effect. The result is a new and improved version of an indestructible classic, which also restores the original artwork to full color.
"Trying to be witty," we’re told at one point, "leads to lying, more or less." But Saint-Exupéry’s drawings offer a handy rebuttal: they’re fresh, funny, and like the book itself, rigorously truthful.
—James Marcus
Amazon.co.uk
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for young children about a Little Prince. How wrong you would be! This is far from the truth: it is much more. It is a complex story containing lots of ambiguities about a child with golden hair. These are all eruditely discussed before the actual story begins, in a section entitled "How It All Began." "Is The Little Prince a story written for children or is it a meditation intended for adults?" The Art of Living is discussed, along with a system of values, and the train of thought behind them is the unifying element. You are invited to "look at the book, and allow yourself to travel from one image to the next..." It was written and published more than 50 years ago in the USA, and the author was a Frenchman who illustrated the book himself; it was later translated by Kathryn Woods. The Little Prince is still very popular and has now been translated into many languages. Shortly after it was first written, the author died—disappearing together with his plane somewhere over the Mediterranean. This Gift edition contains all the original illustrations, plus some more original drawings that came to light later and have been published here for the first time.
—Susan Naylor
From Publishers Weekly
Young Osment (The Sixth Sense; Pay It Forward) again proves his mettle as an actor, giving voice to the Little Prince in this crisp, full-cast production of the literary classic. He approaches the role with gentleness and sensitivity that touches the heart and never sounds maudlin. As the pilot whose plane has crashed in the Sahara, Gere plays it low-key, creating a perfect partner for Osment’s interplanetary-traveling, wise-beyond-his-years prince. Gere expresses just the right mix of amusement and bewilderment as the prince interrupts the pilot’s effort to repair his plane with a request that he draw a sheep. The adept performances capture the timeless nature of Saint-Exupéry’s fable about how a child sees the important things in life much more clearly than many adults do. All ages. (Dec.)
birth. From School Library Journal
Grade 2-6
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classical allegory is presented with the original whimsical watercolor drawings and animation accompanying the translated text. The story may be read alone or with animation and sound. Actor Kenneth Branagh has the role of narrator, and 12-year-old British actor Owen Evans is the voice of the Little Prince. The CD-ROM includes a biography of the author, a diary notebook for users to write in or create their own stationery, panorama pictures, and "The Fox Taming Game." The story will delight young readers, and its meaning will stimulate thinking for older ones. The game to tame the fox involves a lot of waiting and lacks action. The animation, photos, and narration are excellent. Much of the product responds slowly, so patience is required. On-screen help and printing are not available except for the diary. Installation is easier on the Macintosh than on the PC. It is necessary to change the number of colors on the monitor and to install the specific version of QuickTime that is included on the CD-ROM. The review copy was a Beta version and did not allow access to all parts of the CD-ROM for review.
Ann Elders, Mark Twain Elementary School, Federal Way, WA
From AudioFile
At first, Richard Gere’s pause-laden, melancholic narration seems affected, but as this fable of childhood wonder and adult folly unfolds, the sad, quiet tone feels entirely appropriate. As the Little Prince, guilelessly portrayed by The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment, leaves his tiny planet to journey across the universe, he encounters characters who embody greed and futility, and finally a fox who, in a brief but standout performance by Adam Frost, asks to be tamed. Gentle, contemplative music underscores the story, and by the end, the Little Prince has learned that the weightiest matters in life—bonds of friendship and responsibility—are the most intangible. Saint-Exupéry’s pilot has been irrevocably changed by his encounter with the Little Prince; listeners will undoubtedly feel the same way.
J.M.D.
Card catalog description
An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little man from a small planet who describes his adventures in the universe seeking the secret of what is really important in life.
Book Dimensions
Length: (cm) 18.1
Width: (cm) 12.8