No, no, no, no , no! It’s one of those few books that actually get better and better as you grow older.
There was a really sillly French comedy called “Les trois frêres” some years ago that wasn’t particularly memorable. In one scene, however, the three main characters are reading the fox scene to a kid and they all start to cry. The kid doesn’t understand why everyone’s bawling. Even though it was played for laughs in the movie, it’s true that I get misty-eyed when I read that part nowadays. It wasn’t particularly my favourite part when I was a kid, though.
Yes, by all means read it, and first get some background info on Saint-Exupery, preferably by reading some of his other books. I’d recommend Night Flight (Vol de Nuit) and Wind, Sand, and Stars (Terre des Hommes) for insight into his near-mystical bond with aviation and his views of human character, then Flight to Arras (Vol a Arras) to understand how he viewed the war in which he wrote Le Petit Prince. It will make the need to protect that asteroid seem all that more desperately necessary. It’s almost a shame that we now know Saint-Ex didn’t fly there to visit the Prince.
Y’all are really determined to interfere with my vision of reality, aren’t you?
For the last time: Saint-Exupery took off, flew his mission, and just never came back down. There’s no crash, no plane, no wreckage. He just disappeared into the sky.
Once everyone agrees with me, I’ll be happy again.
Otakuloki, he only flew halfway in his plane, to escape the gravitational pull of our very large planet. After that, he didn’t need it anymore, and since it would clutter up the little asteroid, he sent the plane back to Earth. But first he made a muzzle out of some scrap metal and the seatbelt to take with him. Everything’s OK.
