Saturday, April 10, 2004
The Little Prince
Last night I had a discussion with a friend about the Little Prince by Antoine de St. Expury. This book is Biblical to me. The story is beautiful and innocent and is filled with so much insight I sometimes feel completely unworthy of it.
A terrible summary of the book is that a man is flying his plane through the desert when it crashes, he sets about fixing his plane and one night in the middle of the Sahara a Little Prince pops up. Slowly it comes out that the Prince is not from this planet. He encountered many planets between home and the earth each teach him and us something about the nature of grown ups. You have to read this.
I have one copy highlighted and I had a hard cover copy but I have no clue where it is which is breaking my heart.
Here is the interesting part. None of St. Exupery's books is anything like the Little Prince. Not at all. They are all very "grown up" type books. You will get why that is in quotes when you read the Little Prince.
This sometimes makes me believe that the events detailed in the Little Prince really happened. St. Exupery was a pilot. Maybe the story really happened to him, maybe he wrote it down and maybe he just had to let it go otherwise he couldn't get on with his "grown up" life. I know it is crazy but I really have no other explanation for a book that is so absolutely magical, so well written and so utterly heart wrenching.
Somebody on Amazon called it "Likely the most beautiful book ever written." I have to agree.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." St. Exupery
Last night I had a discussion with a friend about the Little Prince by Antoine de St. Expury. This book is Biblical to me. The story is beautiful and innocent and is filled with so much insight I sometimes feel completely unworthy of it.
A terrible summary of the book is that a man is flying his plane through the desert when it crashes, he sets about fixing his plane and one night in the middle of the Sahara a Little Prince pops up. Slowly it comes out that the Prince is not from this planet. He encountered many planets between home and the earth each teach him and us something about the nature of grown ups. You have to read this.
I have one copy highlighted and I had a hard cover copy but I have no clue where it is which is breaking my heart.
Here is the interesting part. None of St. Exupery's books is anything like the Little Prince. Not at all. They are all very "grown up" type books. You will get why that is in quotes when you read the Little Prince.
This sometimes makes me believe that the events detailed in the Little Prince really happened. St. Exupery was a pilot. Maybe the story really happened to him, maybe he wrote it down and maybe he just had to let it go otherwise he couldn't get on with his "grown up" life. I know it is crazy but I really have no other explanation for a book that is so absolutely magical, so well written and so utterly heart wrenching.
Somebody on Amazon called it "Likely the most beautiful book ever written." I have to agree.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." St. Exupery
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