The Little Prince

Recently I read this children’s book called The Little Prince. Written and beautifully illustrated by the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, it is a fable that deals with life. (Don’t they all?!) The story is inspired by a near death experience that the author had when his plane crash-landed in the Sahara. The narrator in the book is the author and he recounts how he met a Little Prince when his plane went down in the desert. Slowly he learns about the life of this Prince who is an alien from a small asteroid. The Prince recounts his story of meeting 6 different men on different asteroids. He then visits Earth where meets a fox. Through the fox the Prince learns a lot of things about life.

Though the book is aimed at kids, I doubt most of them will realize the profound truths hidden in it. The 6 kinds of men the Prince meets are (probably) the humanity typified into 6 kinds. The fox imparts a bit of wisdom about dealing with life to the Prince which is neat. The book is tiny and should not take more than a couple of hours to read. The cool thing about a book borrowed from the library is the history and marginalia it comes with. My copy had all the important quotes underlined, so I had it easy going through it a second time.

Some quotes from the book:

Fox to the Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Fox to the Prince about the rose he tended to: “It is the time you have spent on your rose that makes your rose so important”.

Prince to narrator when they are searching for water in the desert: “What makes the desert beautiful, is that somewhere it hides a well.”