The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine De Saint Exupéry was originally published on 6th April 1943 and was later translated into over 301 languages including Hassaniya, making it one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the first edition of book, the Foundation Saint-Exupéry had launched a project to create an embossed version of 23 illustrations by Antoine making it accessible to the visually impaired who can now discover and enjoy the story and that is very interesting.
The Little Prince is a poetic children’s book written for grown ups. The book begins with “I dedicate this book to the child this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children once (but most of them have forgotten” and it is so true that as we grow older we are expected to behave mature, reasonable, sensible, intellectual and on the journey of becoming the perfect grown up- we forget how it feels to be normal again.
The story starts with Antoine first drawing which looked something like this. To him it was a boa constrictor digesting an elephant but to grown ups it was a hat.
So, he tried his attempt again at drawing and this time he drew inside of the boa, to help grown ups understand but they told him to forget about drawing and rather concentrate on geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.
So, he became a pilot and flew all around the world and one time his plane broke down in Sahara Desert and he had 8 days to repair the engine on his own since he barely had enough drinking water to last more than eight days.
The story revolves around those 8 days how he meets the little prince, the details about little prince- where he was from, what was he doing here in the desert, his story and how he landed up here. As days passed, the author finds out;
- That the little prince was from another planet (Asteroid B612), that had two active volcanoes, one extinct volcano and a rose flower.
- there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab
- he was fond of sunset- that was his only entertainment
- he was in a neighbourhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to his knowledge
The first asteroid was inhabited by a king, the second was inhabited by a conceited man who regarded himself as the handsomest, the best-dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on his planet (note, he was the only person on his planet). The third planet was inhabited by a drunkard. The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. This man was so much occupied counting stars that he did not even raise his head at the little prince’s arrival. The fifth planet was very strange, it was the smallest of all. There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter, on that planet a day lasted only a minute. The sixth planet was ten times larger than the last one. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote voluminous books and told him to be an explorer.
When the little prince asked the explorer, does your planet have any oceans, any mountains, towns, rivers and deserts. The explorer couldn’t tell though he was a geographer. He hadn’t explored a single thing on his planet. The Little Prince was disappointed and he asks him “What place would you advise me to visit now?”
“The planet Earth,” replied the geographer. “It has a good reputation. So, then the seventh planet was Earth. When he arrived on Earth, he was surprised not to see any people. He was beginning to be afraid that he had come to the wrong planet, just then he saw a snake and he told the little prince that he is in Africa and that he was in a desert that’s why there are no people here.
When the prince said to snake that you are no thicker than a finger and you do not even have a feet. The snake replies, “I am more powerful than the finger of a king. I can carry you farther than any ship could take you. I can help you, someday, if you grow too homesick for your own planet.
The little prince crossed the desert and met with a flower with three petals. Where are the people?” the little prince asks, politely. “People?” she echoed. “I think there are six or seven of them in existence. I saw them, several years ago. But one never knows where to find them. The wind blows them away. They have no roots, and that makes their life very difficult.”.
After that the Prince climbed a high mountain. He thought from a mountain he will be able to see the whole planet at one glance, and all the people. But he saw nothing, he could only see peaks of rock that were sharpened like needles.
After walking for a long time through sand, and rocks, and snow, the little prince at last came upon a road and he found himself to be standing before a garden, a garden all bloomed with roses. The little prince gazed at them and he thought that they all looked like his flower. His flower had told him that she was the only one of her kind in all the universe. And here were five thousand of them, all alike, in one single garden!
Then he went on with his reflections: “I thought that I was rich, with a flower that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose. A common rose, and three volcanoes that come up to my knees-and one of them perhaps extinct forever. That doesn’t make me a very great prince. He was upset and sad so he lied down in the grass and cried”.
It was then that the fox appeared. As soon as the prince saw him, he proposed the fox to come and play with him as he was so unhappy.
But the fox said, I cannot play with you. I am not tamed.
The little prince asked the fox, what does it mean to tame and the fox replies that “it is an act too “often neglected. It means to establish ties. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world”.
The fox leaves him with a secret, a very simple secret and says “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose”.
Then he goes on to meet the railway switchman, the merchant. It was now the eighth day since the plane had crashed and the author drank the last supply of water while listening to the merchant story. They were thirsty and they started looking for a well. After a long day they saw a well and they quench their thirst by having a drink of water.
“Later, the narrator finds the prince talking to the snake, discussing his return home and his desire to see his rose again. “The prince bids an emotional farewell to the narrator and states that if it looks as though he has died, it is only because his body was too heavy to take with him to his planet. The prince warns the narrator not to watch him leave, as it will upset him. The narrator, realising what will happen, refuses to leave the prince’s side. The prince consoles the narrator by saying that he only need to look at the stars to think of the prince’s loveable laughter, and that it will seem as if all the stars are laughing. The prince then walks away from the narrator and allows the snake to bite him and he soundlessly falls down”.
The story ends with the author saying, “But I know that he did go back to his planet, because I did not find his body at daybreak”.
The narrator’s got questions that can’t ever be answered. Whether the sheep has eaten the flower or the flower is safe is a great mystery. He wonders what is happening on his planet? But the ending also holds possibility for hope, because we don’t know exactly what happened. Perhaps (we hope!) the prince made it safely home to his flower. Perhaps he remembers to keep the sheep away from his flower. Perhaps all is well up there in Asteroid B-612. It is upto you how you think of it.
In the end, the narrator turns to the readers and begs to keep a look out for the prince- A little man who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions still.
The Little Prince is a 2015 animated adventure film directed by Mark Osborne. Yes, you read that right there is a movie made on the book. Once you have read the book, I would recommend you to watch the movie as well for better understanding and interpretations by the writer of the movie. The movie goes beyond the book let me assure you. The ending of the book is not how the movie ends. The movie has more to offer to your imagination.
