Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Reading Time: 'The Little Prince' by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

'The Little Prince' was written during WWII by Antoine De Saint-Exupery,  a pilot and a writer. He disappeared over the Mediterranean, during one of his French air squadron missions in 1944.


The story is retold by a pilot who, due to his plane engine problems, lands on the Sahara Desert. There he meets the Prince, a little boy whose home is Asteroid B-612.
The Prince - who is in love with a Rose - the only rose on his little planet, tells the pilot about his life and visits on other Asteroids, and characters he met during his trips. Each of those persons the boy encountered, depicts a certain kind of human personality traits and ways of thinking.

The book can be a gift both for kids and grown-ups. However, children may not get the little gems - some philosophical truths hidden in the book contents. On the other hand, many adults may find the story too childish to be worth reading, and that is why they are most likely to miss those gems too. Sounds quite complicated but maybe this is actually what makes 'The Little Prince' so great and unusual. If you did not read this book in your childhood or teenage years, maybe now is the time for you to enjoy the story.

Some of my favorite sentences in this book are:

'One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.'
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'... people (...) have no imagination. They repeat whatever you say to them.'
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'People haven't time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But since there are no stores where you can buy friends, people no longer have friends.'

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