By Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.
The first time I ever read this book, I was a teenager in French class and we read en Francais of course. I really liked this book at the time, though I’m not sure if the version I read was simplified in the French, because this book has quite a lot of complex ideas in it!
I didn’t remember the story super well other than the Little Prince saying, “Design-moi un mouton!”. That’s “draw me a sheep” in English and that interaction touches off the whole story between the narrator and the Little Prince.
This is a lovely little book that I wish I had discovered at a younger age, though I love re-reading it as an adult. It has lots of wonderful, deep ideas about life that are essential to learn and remember.
Of course, the most-quoted line in this book has to be, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
I’m also excited to see the movie that’s coming out. When I started watching the trailer, I thought it was an ad for another movie at first and then I realized it was all the same movie!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8]
