The little prince is, paradoxically, an extremely famous book which many people reading this will not have heard of. It is a delightful story, which was originally written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1943. He did not live to see it translated into English and published here the following ... Read review
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for ... more
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 ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Can engender wonderful thoughts and feelings. Disadvantages: Can also inspire great sadness: though this is not necessarily a disadvantage!
The little prince is, paradoxically, an extremely famous book which many people reading this will not have heard of. It is a delightful story, which was originally written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1943. He did not live to see it translated into English and published here the following year, for he died in 1944. Yet despite this, he is a national figure in France. He wrote many other books and essays, and during the occupation of France he was ... ...he is most famous for the Little Prince.
You may have seen a picture of the little prince himself already, as he also resides upon the 50 franc note, alongside his author. (The sleeve notes of one version of this story say that the 50 franc note is known as the 'Saint-Ex' apparently!) Those of you who studied French to a higher level than I did may have been introduced to the story in its native language, but for those who haven't, ... more
The little prince is, paradoxically, an extremely famous book which many people reading this will not have heard of. It is a delightful story, which was originally written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1943. He did not live to see it translated into English and published here the following year, for he died in 1944. Yet despite this, he is a national figure in France. He wrote many other books and essays, and during the occupation of France he was exiled to America, where he wrote this book, but he flew as a reconnaissance pilot, winning three 'Croix de Guerre'. He also had successes as an inventor, and made long distance flight record attempts amongst other things: yet he is most famous for the Little Prince.
You may have seen a picture of the little prince himself already, as he also resides upon the 50 franc note, alongside his author. (The sleeve notes of one version of this story say that the 50 franc note is known as the 'Saint-Ex' apparently!) Those of you who studied French to a higher level than I did may have been introduced to the story in its native language, but for those who haven't, I want you to be able to do so now.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was, as his sleeve notes will tell you, a 'novelist and professional air pilot'. It adds to the closeness of the story then, to find that the narrator and co-star of the story is himself an 'air pilot' who crash lands in the middle of the Sahara desert. At sunrise on the first morning of his time in the desert, he is surprisingly woken from his sleep by the voice of a boy who demands that the pilot should draw him a sheep! This is the Little Prince, and he fascinates the pilot with his curiosity and his tales of the planet he came from (Asteroid B-612 we are told, for the sake of the grown ups who find such details important). He tells stories that show his innocence and his character, particularly those of his love for a flower which he strives to protect, despite its vanity and haughtiness towards him, which eventually lead to his journey away that ended in the desert. However, as time passes, he longs to return to his home and his flower, just as the pilot longs to return home. Yet how can the Little Prince make such a journey..? The ending is very moving, and is guaranteed to stir something in the heart of every reader. I would like to describe it in further detail here, but for the sake of those who do not yet know the story, I can not spoil it.
The book does not start with the story itself however. It begins with a tale from the narrator of Boa Constrictors. This may seem odd, but if I were to tell you all about it, it would spoil the surprise for you. Suffice to say, it tells you a lot about the power of imagination that children have, but is gradually extinguished by the time most reach adulthood. That, fundamentally, is one of the most important ideas contained within this book. It is covered again at the end in a different manner, perhaps for us adults, because, as the book says, "grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be forever explaining things to them" This is a book of imagination, joy and delight, with so many poignant and touching stories and ideas in it that it becomes difficult not to quote them all. "It is only with the heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." Oops- see what I mean?
I own two different versions of this book- the original translation by Katherine Woods (Piper, 1945) and the more recent translation by Alan Wakeman (Pavilion, 1995) with additional illustrations by Michael Foreman. The latter claims to be a better and more definitive version- the language is obviously different, but I didn't feel that the language in the original translation caused a problem. While it may have been harder to read for younger children, part of this seems also due to its age too. I thought the newer version was just as good, though I enjoyed the extra illustrations by Foreman. Thankfully, the beautiful, simplistic original artwork by Exupery is still retained, as the simplicity is part of the appeal of the book, in the writing and the illustrations.
This is a book for children, but also for adults. Younger children may like to hear the story, finding the Prince funny and odd, though they may miss the finer points of his messages. Older children will begin to appreciate the story at new levels; as with many great stories, it operates on varied levels simultaneously. Grown up children will probably love it best for the reasons I have described here. The wonderful closeness of the two characters is portrayed beautifully, and the helpless dismay I felt as the portents of the end of the story suddenly became apparent was crafted so well, you really felt for the Prince and the pilot. I have read it to children I have taught, and for many of them it became their favourite book, many others loved it, very few have ever missed the point it was making: but even some of those few still liked it.
There was a film made of this book too. It was made in the mid 1970's, and featured Gene Wilder, Joss Ackland and Victor Spinetti. I saw it a while ago, and it was quite good, but I felt a little disappointed, because it wasn't anything like as good as it was in my imagination when I read the book. But then, I believe that could be just proving something of the point made by the Little Prince at the start of the book......
Get this book. Read it. Tell me you liked it.I have no doubt you will .
Go on then . One more quote.. A very poignant one...
" 'You are a funny animal', he said at last.'You are no thicker than a finger..' 'But I am more powerful than the finger of a king' said the snake........'I can carry you further than any ship could take you...' "
Advantages: Remembering the truth Disadvantages: Adults have forgotten the truth
...stoopid Tazzy ramblings and onto the good stuff...the review, I have decided to re-write my first ever review, I really did not do the book any justice the first time round, so here goes!
~Gather round children, you might learn something new~
This is undoubtedly the most famous piece of work by the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and although a children's novel has a lot of underlying, very adult, messages about perception, love, relationships ... ...the younger readers. This little book has been translated into about 160 different languages, sold over 50 million copies, think it was made into an opera a couple of years ago, and has even had it's own anime series (spanning 39 episodes).
Saint Exupery's love in life was being a pilot, but he was forced by his fiancée's family to take a desk job in Paris, which he did, but eventually their engagement was called off, and he returned to flying. ...
tazzywazzy 09.03.2006 (09.03.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Advantages: Charming, and full of insight Disadvantages: You reach the end too quickly
...a child. He never lost the sense of wonder that accompanies being either of those. A child, having failed to draw boa constrictors in a way the conveys the sheer horror of such creatures to an adult…submits to the real world and grows up. He becomes a pilot and, because “something broke” in his engine finds himself stranded in the Sahara, thousands of miles from anywhere. “So you can imagine my surprise at sunrise when an ... ...Thus our narrator meets the Little Prince. Even to tell you that the Prince comes from another planet, a very small planet, is to tell too much of the story. Any clues to what happens, what tales are told and how and why, would detract from the joy of self-discovery. As the Prince and the Pilot talk about their worlds, we learn again what it is to look at the world with untainted vision and to question what is important. We are taught to consider ...
hiker 30.03.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Advantages: Simple yet profoundly deep Disadvantages: None
You read the story once... it seems different, yet childish and shallow at the same time.
Read it the second time... you find it's got meaning...
Read it the third time... and you will realize the essence of your rat-race filled life.
Or do you have to be a lab rat just like society tells you to be?
This is one book (the only book)... which I hand out to my loved ones. This is a book which can change the heart of the toughest, meanest and stone-cold, ... ...and ever since, I'd read the book at least once a month.... (I just haven't done so recently). But many many many lessons can be learned from this book. And every time you read it, it never fails to teach you something new.
This is basically a childrens' book... you will find this in the childrens' section of the bookstore. It's only a couple of pages long and will only take you about 1 hour to read it through the end. (And it is worth it!)
It's ...
dhay 13.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
...I've grown with this book, the first time I read it I was only 7 years old and since then this book was always surprising me every time I read it.
The little prince is like the child we have inside us and we forget most of the times...
He doesn't understand why adults have certain attitudes and mostly why some (material) things are so important to them like have lots of money, spend all the time working, etc., instead of giving importance for the ...
sweet_baby 20.01.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
...should read it again. Its the kind of book that needs to be passed on to a new reader like your Grandpa's watch. It does not talk down to children (no fluffy wuffy bunnies), so can be read by any age, but actually manages to make them think 'outside-the-box' and introduces some surprising philosophical topics which shames us into realising how dismissive of children we actually are. If you're the kind of person who thinks dolls and plastic tea-sets ...
Twingo 28.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
simon prince
THE PRINCEOF EGYPT isafull-length,animatedversion ofthe Bib ...
Product Information for "The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Children's
Title
The Little Prince
Author
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
ISBN
0152048049; 0434971235; 0749707232; 0749708778
Manufacturer's product description
This parable tells the story of an air pilot who meets a Little Prince when he has to make a forced landing in the Sahara Desert. The Little Prince tells him wise and enchanted stories.
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