The Little Prince

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

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View books by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

almost poetry - Rated
Anyone who would say this book could only be enjoyed by children are utterly wrong. I'm not a child and i thought it was a beautifully written and inspiring story. It tells the tale of the little prince who wishes to explore another planet as he has always lived on his own (apart from his friend the rose). I won't go into the plot too much because to be honest it was a while ago that i read it and i wouldn't want to get it wrong, but one chapter in particular that i remember being quite touching is when the little prince talks about his friendship with a fox. The book is almost poetic, and at times i found it quite sad, but i would reccommend it to anyone, no matter what age.

fine fine book - Rated
I really enjoyed this book tremendously. I think the latest news report about the German pilot who claims he shot down Saint-Exupery is going to make the interest in his work, and especially this book shoot back up in the charts!

Brill Book - Rated
`The Little Prince' is a true classic tale. It is very well-known and very well-loved. This is the complete and unabridged book written by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
Here is the plot of the story: the boy in this story lives on a planet on his own, so he visited some other planets. A king inhabited the first planet. He looked very majestic. He sat on a beautiful throne and had a curiosity for yawning - he ordered the little prince to yawn! On the second planet, there lived a proud man who called our main character in this book, an admirer! A drunkard was who lived on the third planet; the prince stayed only for a short while and he was very sad indeed! The fourth planet belonged to a businessperson - a very, very, very busy one as well. The fifth planet was tiny! It was so small; it only fitted a lamppost and a lamppost lighter! The sixth planet was much larger and an old man occupied it who was a geographer. And the seventh planet was very unlike the rest - it was Earth...
I really liked this book and would positively rate it 9/ 10. I would strongly recommend it to anyone in the need of a very good read.

one of the greatest books ever written, destroyed by bad translation - Rated
I originally read this book in the katherine woods translation and feel in love. I bought this new translation as a gift for a friend however, after noticing it was different, I read it. What a monstrousity of a translation! I suppose the translator was attempting to "modernize" the speech but in reality they simply dumbed down the content. This translation has lost the beautiful poetic flow of the katherine woods translation. It is like an entirely different book. Why publishers felt the need to fix something that was never broken is beyond me.
I was so disgusted, I threw away this translation and searched for the original at a used book shop.

The best book in the world - Rated
I have just scanned through several of the other reviews, and they all give this novel five stars, apart from one, but that is due to the translation.

I read this book first in English, and then later obtained a copy from France, and I have to say that it flows so much better in its original language.

I re-read this book periodically, and it never fails to break my heart. So profound and poignant, it is certainly deserving of a place in so many people's classic list.