Book Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Back to reviewing a children’s book.
This is a really hard book to explain. It’s a simple story, and yet there are some really deep concepts in it. Concepts that kids actually manage to pick up on. Things like responsibility, and narrowmindedness, and the danger of stereotypes, and, well, you get the idea. Complex subjects that are handled in a way that makes it easy to talk to kids about them. No, that’s not it. The subjects are handled in a way so the kids talk to you about them. Yeah, that’s it. The kids get the concept and explain it to you.
As an adult, I see part of the message of the book as a metaphor for how to live life, how to remember the meaning of life as I’m living it. A reminder of the important stuff. And Glittergirl manages to understand that, too.
Officially the book is for nine plus year olds, but you can read it to kids much younger, though in smaller doses at a time. GlitterGirl could grasp some of the concepts at four or five. Just be prepared for some very deep conversations when you read it to a child with enough language skills to talk about it. Sometimes GlitterGirl and I don’t manage to finish the book, as we get caught up in a conversation sparked by the book and the book is forgotten.
This may be a children’s book, but it is very deep, and very profound. I frequently see people, adults, with quotes from the book in their signature lines as I wonder around the ‘net. Because it is translated into English, sometimes you see slightly different translations when you see quotes. Here are some that you often see:
- Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
- You’re beautiful, but you’re empty…. No one could die for you.
- “Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
- But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart…
- To conceited men, all other men are admirers.
- But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you shall be unique in the world. To you, I shall be unique in the world.
- Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.
- When someone blushes, doesn’t that mean “yes”?
- You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.
- It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important.
And here is a longer excerpt:
“If I commanded a general to fly from one flower to the next like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not carry out my command, which of us would be in the wrong, the general or me?”
“You would be,” said the little prince quite firmly.
“Exactly. One must command from each what each can perform,” the king went on. “Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump in the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable.”
“Then my sunset?” insisted the little prince, who never let go of a question once he had asked it.
“You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait, according to my science of government, until conditions are favorable.”
“And when will that be?” inquired the little prince.
“Well, well!” replied the king, first consulting a large calender. “Well, well! That would be around… around… that would be tonight around seven-forty! And you’ll see how well I’m obeyed.”
And another,
And with that concept in mind, see what the below statement means to you:
Starting to get an idea of how the book works? Can one rose you care about be more valuable than five thousand of them? Can it be that what people are looking for is a connection?
This book was written in 1943 and has stood the test of time. It is a truly unique children’s book.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:46 am
This book is wonderful and I saw there is a cd also. The cd is really well done and is captivating as much as the book.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Sorry, it is not a cd it’s a DVD that I wanted to say.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I’ve seen this movie version
and enjoyed it. It does a good job of getting across much of the book. Some of the musical numbers were longer than they needed to be, though.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This has always been one of my favorite books. I just started to read it to my 3 year old.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:29 am
It is even better in the original French!
“C’est un chapeau!”
The adults think the picture is a hat, whereas the little boy has drawn a picture of a snake that swallowed an elephant!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I absolutely love this book! But only as an adult. As a child, I did not find it interesting at all. I simply did not like it. As an adult, I read the book in a completely different way. Actually I thought the author really intended this book for adults, but who knows.
The book is in the frame of a little boy talking to a pilot who had an emergency landing. The author himself was actually a pilot, who disappered mysteriously in 1944. Some 50 years later, they recovered what was thought to be part of his crashed airplane. Gave me chills when I first heard about that…
June 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I quoted this book in my HS and college year book. As a child I did not really like it very much though- even at the age of 9-10. My mother read it to me. I got much more out of it when we read it in HS as a class. At that point- it had a whole new meaning to me.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I agree! If you can read it in the original french, it’s even better. I didn’t encounter this book until high school french class and it’s one of my absolute faves. I highly recommend it. The teachings in the book are so important!!
June 25th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I’ll have to try it again, this time in English though. I read it in high school in French (don’t think I can do that anymore).
June 25th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
An absolute classic……as the french say tres bien!!!
June 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
RQ, the link for the movie version was not what I saw. I saw it as an animated cartoon style not with real persons. Very well done in French (there is certainly an English version). I will try to find it and give you the info. I have looked on Amazon but haven’t found it yet.