February 2025 Book, The Little Prince

 

Talk About Books meets every third Wednesday of the month at Guilford Free Library at 5:00. Zoom is available by request, but most people prefer in-person discussion.

The Little Prince or Le Petit Prince, is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It was first published in April 1943 in the United States and then posthumously in France following liberation. de Saint-Exupéry's works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults, and human nature.

To determine if grownups are as enlightened as a child, the narrator shows them a picture depicting a boa  constrictor that has eaten an elephant. The adults always reply that the picture represents a hat, so he knows to only talk of "reasonable" things to them, rather than the fanciful.

The narrator becomes an aircraft pilot, and one day, his plane crashes in the Sahara desert, far from civilization. The narrator must fix his airplane before his supply of water runs out. Here, he is greeted by a young boy nicknamed "the little prince.". . .

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