The Little Prince

[duchess of malfi]

Lately I seem to be rereading many things I have not read in decades.

The latest reread is Antoine de Saint Exupery's The Little Prince. It's a tiny little book, just a bit over 100 pages; but it is lovely and profound.

It is a fable about a man whose plane goes down in the Sahara a thousand miles from anywhere, and the very special person he meets there.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential in invisible to the eye.

Incidentally, I once tracked down another of the author's books, Wind, Sand, and Stars, and while not a fable (it was autobiographical), it was also magically well written...the story of an airman and the desert...prose as lovely as any poetry. This author found beauty in everything and everyone; an extraordinary writer and soul who was lost to us in WW2.

[Loredoctor]

I was given this book seven years ago and thought it was wonderful.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

I've read (or been read) The Little Prince in English, French and Polish, and it always seems to grow with the reading. Might be because I was growing, too. It's been a few years since I read it last, and I think I'll pick it up again when I get the chance.

Every time I hear the song "Spanish Harlem" (There is a rose in Spanish Harlem, a red rose up in Spanish Harlem...), I think of the prince's rose.

Night Flight is another good book of Saint-Exupery's, and probably his most famous after The Little Prince . Have yet to read that one, though there's a copy of it on one of my bookshelves.

St.-Ex. was a pilot, so most if not all his books were inspired by his experiences flying, especially flying in the desert. Here's an interesting mini-bio about him: www.kirjasto.sci.fi/exupery.htm

[danlo]

Night Flight is an awesome book about the Lisbon to Rio mail route!