The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Little Prince is a novella by the French author, aviator and poet, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. There seems to be a universal love for this book irrespective of country. Infact it is the fourth most translated book in the world. It has been translated into over 250 languages/dialects.

At the beginning of the book the author remembers his frustration with adults when he was six years old. After reading about the eating habbits of a boa constrictor he created a drawing of a boa constricter digesting an elephant. When he showed his masterpiece to the adults all they could see was a picture of a hat. Frustrated by this a produced another drawing, this time showing the view from inside the boa constrictor. “They always need to have things explained.” The only response he got from the adults to this drawing was to advise him to, “lay aside my drawings of boa constictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmatic, and grammar.” We see that the author has maintained the curisity and imagination that we all have as children. Unfortunately some adults forget all about this when they grow up.

During his life the author would show his first drawing of the boa constictor to anyone he thought was at all clear-sighted. Everyone he showed it to though always said “That is a hat”.
“Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars.”

One day the author was flying over the Sahara when he had an accident. He set about trying to repair the aircraft. He was woken up on the first night by a voice asking him if he would draw a sheep. He saw infront of him an extaordinaty small person. Trying to explain to the small person that he couldn’t draw, he drew what he has drawn so often, the boa constrictor. The auther was astounded to hear the reply, “No, no, no! I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor.”

As the story goes on we hear about the planet where the little prince came from and his journey. It was read to me by my dad as a small child and the imagery of the people on those little planets has stayed with me all my life. Its one of those books that can be read again and again at any age. It always manages to catch the imagination in different ways.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery Distributed by Agence France-Presse – NY Times online, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25940327