Inspired by the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a bo aconstrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.

This is how the book that i`ll be talking begins and I think just by reading it many people can recognize what book it is about. "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exurpéry is a book that has accompanied most of us throughout our lives. Full of beautiful reflections and teachings that could help us in different situations of life; and Although it is a book recommended for children, reading it at adult ages does not represent a waste of time, on the contrary it can open a new level of understanding of the book since we can take references from it and compare them with lived experiences.

Cover of the Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Source.

What do we know about the mastermind behind the Little Prince?

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger Count of Saint-Exupéry, better known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French novelist and aviator who had an interest in mechanics and aviation since he was very young, but did not succeed in the naval school in his first attempt, for that reason he decided enroll in the school of Fine Arts. Years later he managed to learn the profession of Aviator during his military service but without joining the army. It is there where his travel in the literary means begins.. The Little Prince was the work with which Antoine acquired his renown, but other of his literary works such as The Aviator, Southern Mail, Night Flight and Pilot of War were also well know. It is said that each scale of his life as a pilot corresponds to one of his literary works.

Photographic portrait of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Source

What does the Little Prince tell us?

It's a story about a pilot, with a frustrated career as painter since he was 6 years old, who is stranded in the Sahara desert due to a breakdown in his plane and who, to his surprise, finds a child without any sign of being native of the area that asks him to draw a lamb. The pilot not knowing how to draw anything but a boa with an elephant inside, which all adults recognized as a hat, proceeds to draw his only drawing to little prince and he understands perfectly what it is about. From there the little prince and the pilot embark on a philosophical journey provided by the stories that the little prince comments of the trip that he has undertaken since leaving his planet B 612 until arriving at the eart; One from the curiosity of wanting to understand the world of adults and the other from the perspective of that world. Both achieve a very nice bond in which the pilot realizes that adults never understand the things that are really important.

The Little Prince adaptation to theater. Source

Read it again after 10 years. Have things changed?

The first time I read this book was 11 years old, It was because of a homework in the subject-matter of Castilian. I remember that at first I did not want to read it, I was not so fanatical about reading in those days, however it was a task and I had to do it. When I read it, I felt trapped in the little prince's point of view, with the curiosity he showed and how he always had his own conclusion about what was happening without noticing many adult things. 10 years later, when I read it again, I was able to find what lies behind what was written in the book, the meaning that the stories the little prince tells, and to rediscover those teachings acquired at the age of 11, now not with the innocence of the children but with the melancholy of the adult. Without a doubt reading it again after 10 years opened a new perspective in me of the book and leave me the hope of some day see what only with the heart we can see rightly.

My favorite phrases and teachings that the little prince gives us

“If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers."

"Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far..."

"One day, you said to me, I saw the sunset forty-four times! ... You know one loves the sunset, when one is so sad."

"If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, 'Somewhere, my flower is there."

"If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy."

" It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

The Little Princr, The Rose and The Fox. Source

I hope you liked this review as much as I liked doing it. I hope to see you in my future post. Comment what other books you would like me to make a review or other publications you would like me to make.

Success and Blessings for all.

Kisses, Albany.