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	• The Little Prince Harvest Books, 2000 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 276 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The great little prince

This is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. It is full of imagination and shows a different way to see things. It is a masterpiece. No wonder why the French celebrate this author as one of their greatest.

Saint-Ex's goodbye

SPOILER WARNING! This review reveals the end of the story.

This is one of my favourite books but its popularity puzzles me because I've always felt The Little Prince dealt with the dark side of life, and that it might tempt us with the lure of an easy exit.

This is a tale in which a child commits suicide. Period. It's no good insisting that Saint-Ex's story offers life lessons, or that it is a metaphor for wanting to go home. This might well be true, but it's at bottom still the story of a little boy whose heart is broken by a difficult relationship who chooses to end his suffering by killing himself with a snake bite.

I believe the book is Saint-Ex's suicide note. Saint-Ex considered suicide unmanly and base. Man must fight on and struggle with life no matter how bad it gets. He clearly states this in Wind, Sand, and Stars. Yet Saint-Ex was an unhappy difficult man stuck in difficult relationships with difficult women. Furthermore, as a French thinker he was living through the same period of existential angst that would give rise to Camus and Sartre. (Not to mention World War II! ) He cleverly trapped himself in his own rules. Men don't kill themselves, and Saint-Ex was a Man. He had to find a subtle exit and any suicide note he left had to be disguised.

He died returning from a reconnaissance mission in an unarmed plane. Why unarmed? Why did he insist on being given these excessively dangerous missions? Pure conjecture on my part, but I think he just wanted to end it all, and he wanted to go out a hero.

In this light, I see The Little Prince as his suicide note. A possible reason is ordinary to the point of being trite. A mere failed love affair, a turbulent romance with his wife Consuelo. The deeper reason is that like so many artists, Saint-Ex suffered and could not shake that off. But being the man's man that he was, he had to go out like a man. Not for Saint-Ex the easy exit. Not for Saint-Ex the certain exit. I suppose his plane was unarmed so that he could not go looking for a fight, as a safeguard against his engineering an easily found death. He had to come back safely for his mission to be successful, and yet the risk of being shot down was always there, the German defenses promising to end his suffering like the snake promises to send the Little Prince home to his beloved rose with a single quick bite.

Saint-Ex himself is thus the Little Prince, but not wanting to be obvious, he makes the narrator a pilot, just as he was, so that we mistake the narrator-pilot for the author-pilot. Instead, perhaps we should see the child-prince in the author and see ourselves, the readers, in the narrator. When the Little Prince tells the narrator not to worry, that he would only seem dead but that he would really be up there in the stars, isn't this really Saint-Ex telling us that his spirit, his soul, would be there for us in his books?

Not for children.

Vincent Poirier, Dublin

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Still great after all these years

A great story after all these years. Becomes more meaningful each time that I read it again. Some of the people who may, or may not, recognize themselves in the book will certainly miss the point of it--or not want to see it. This boxed edition is good quality--looks good and nice feel.

the little prince

For the past 2 decades spiritual/self-help books, audios, movies, live lectures, work-shops, etc. have become very popular. If you follow the creators of such work you'll see a repeating pattern: The first book (or work in other shape and forms ) is a hit, a best seller, a life saver, an eye opener, a path changer and so on. After the success, follows the numerous other books which basically say the same thing with different titles and words . Of course there would also be the "The Gift Shop" selling hats, t-shirts, coffee mugs, note-cards and all the other "Spiritual"goodies. Also, if you are willing to spare money, you could get very "Special" and "Unique" offers. The at first modest and humble messenger of the so-called spiritual work turns to a famous egoistic person caring more about their fame than their original message.As Kafka says,"you can write many books about life but get very little "life" out of books.
People who really have the intention to be the messenger of what seems essential to them and wish to share their insights and experiences because their sharing is a gift, do not seek money and fame. Sharing love, light, healing and miracles is not and cannot be conditional. It does not seem spiritual to turn rich and famous and on top of that become distant from people. People like Dr. Schweitzer, Mother Tressa, and many others can and will be famous unintentionally but I seriously doubt that genuine help was not their main intention (their ONLY intention).
All that said, if you read and reread the simple yet profound book, The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupe'ry, you'll see that this short book that can really be for all ages in different stages, carries many gifts without the need of fancy titles, lengthy lectures, gift shops, and sequels. The author of this book is long gone and yet the message of his book is simple, eternal and universal. Most of one can seek in today's "New Age" heavy books, can be found in this simple, heart-felt and honest book. After all, as The Little Prince says, "What is essential is invisible to the eye"

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Awesome as a gift, for your classic literature collection, and for children

Le petit prince is my favorite book... both in fernch and in english! It captures the heart of innocence and teaches valuable moral lessons. The book is versatile- great for kids and great for adults.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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