The Little Prince

There's not much more I can add to the millions of glowing reviews out there about The Little Prince. It's one of the all time great books. In less than 100 pages it manages to grab your heart and give you such a Seth of emotion on finishing it. That speaks volumes about just how amazing a story it presents. This is most assuredly a book everyone should read.

Being this fable is only ~100 pages, It's likely I'll read it more than once. Being a story-wide allegory what the various elements in the story (including the little prince himself) represent is not immediately obvious to me; perhaps this is one of those stories the reader must ponder and revisit multiple times before they understand the themes.

With the aforementioned considered, technically the novella didn't frustrate me in any meaningful way. It appears repetition as a literary device is present throughout the story as a character developing tool and functions somewhat poetically, presenting the narrative as similar to an Aesop fable of sorts through each chapter. Plot-wise, the linear story-line doesn't confuse the reader too much, but sometimes the reader may get lost during conversations between two characters because of the sometimes glaringly lacking dialogue tags showing who's speaking. Contributing to its world-building, the sufficient details of each location is provided, presented as a long journey the main character takes. In fact, through its digestible though surprisingly layered prose, they're many lessons it efforts to present to its targeted readers (which are likely adolescents). If read during this time in one's life, the rich commentary and allegory may, however, still be overlooked and interpreted under the guise of a lackluster, layer-less children's story.

Nonetheless, perhaps The Little Prince (or rather the lessons and commentary it presents) is better understood at different junctions or phases in one life. After all, the story itself nods at this, almost implying that an adult (or “grown-up”) may never understand the allegorical elements of the story—or at least not in the same way—as a child or tween might.

I'm not one to discredit entertainment made for children so quickly, but needless to say I was a bit disappointed with the world renowned classic The Little Prince. Maybe I'm a cynic or an overly analytic reader, but to say that I got more than mild enjoyment from this book would be a lie.

The book starts off projecting what it's going to be like for the next 80 pages, of how growing up sucks and that creativity dies with it. Not a bad message, but it is the book's hill to die on with almost every page of the book repeating that same message. There is no nuance to it or any reason stated that adults become this way, they just do. Almost the entire beginning of the book is just dedicated to the prince going to different planets that represent the worst parts of adulthood in a disparaging way. Which is representative of the book's worst problem: its structure, which lends to awkward pacing problems that even with its small amount of pages - still goes on for far too long at some points.

The book does however stick its landing with its other (much stronger ending) about making something (or someone) meaningful, which lends itself to such a strong, poetic ending.

I'm probably not the target audience for this, but I just didn't find the magic in The Little Prince like everyone else on earth did. Maybe I do belong on the planet of those who have forever lost their imagination.

A classic children's novel that is being adapted into a feature length film by Mark Osborne this year. It feels a bit long and wordy considering the audience it is geared towards, but the language is never very difficult. I can understand why it is so revered. The author speaks simple truths about what it is like to be a child and how easy it is for children to understand things. I have never read this story, but it instantly filled me with nostalgia. I think this is very cute and that my girlfriend would enjoy it.

Rating: 5 leaves out of 5Characters: 5/5 Cover: 5/5Story: 5/5Writing: 5/5Genre: Classic/ChildrenType: AudiobookWorth?: YESHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked LovedNothing like trying hard not to cry at work. This was such a beautiful read and the deep meanings behind it.

I read this simultaneously in English and French. In France. A happy experience. Love this book.

A pilot crashes his plane in the desert, and who unexpectedly arrives to keep him company while he repairs his plane? A little prince from a faraway planet. The Little Prince tells the pilot stories of his home planet where he cares for a Rose and tries to keep down the baobab trees and watches up to forty-four sunsets in a single day.

The Little Prince tells the pilot of his visits to other planets where he meets a king who commands everything on a planet where there is nothing; a very vain man who wants to be admired; a drunkard who drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking; a businessman who says he owns the star and is a very serious person; a lamplighter who is following orders to light his lamp mornings and turn out his lamp after dark, but whose planet turns so fast that he must light and turn it out every minute; a geographer who is waiting for explorers to bring him information about the geography of his planet before he makes note of it; and then Earth.

It was on Earth that the Little Prince met a snake, no bigger than a king's finger, and yet more powerful, able to send anyone touched by the snake back to the land from which he came. It was on Earth that the Little Prince saw a blossoming rose garden with thousands of flowers, and realized that his Flower was not unique.

It was on Earth that the Little Prince met the fox who asked the Little Prince to tame him—“For me you're only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me either. For you I'm only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we'll need each other. You'll be the only boy in the world for me. I'll be the only fox in the world for you...“

Now the Little Prince could look at the thousands of roses and know that his rose was special: “...my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I watered. Since she's the one I put under glass. Since she's the one I sheltered behind a screen....Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.”

“It was the fox who revealed to the Little Prince a secret: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”

The Little Prince is a novella written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and published in April 1943. It is the story of a child, the little prince, who travels the universe gaining wisdom. On the surface it's a simple story, but this little prince is as wise as they come and his messages of compassion and goodwill continue to endure.

From the book, we can take away seven timeless life lessons:

1. Don't be too fond of numbers
2. Look after the planet
3. Don't judge others by their words, but by what they do
4. Relationships make life worth living
5. The important things in life you cannot see with your eyes, only with your heart
6. It is the time you give to something that makes it precious
7. And finally, remember to look up at the stars

I enjoyed the story and messages in my first read of 2024.

A very interesting read that I'd definitely recommend as it's way too short for anyone to not go through at least once (Listen to the audiobook which is a little under 2 hours to save time, you'll miss the pictures though). This book has been styled in a way that it may seem to be a children's novella. But to each, their own interpretation, the messages, and themes are something worth pondering upon even as an adult(or as the book refers, “the grown-ups”). We, humans, are often kids at heart and though we may not agree on everything from the writer's perspective, there's something that we CAN take from the book; curiosity and asking very different questions from those that we are used to asking. It's like a peek into the workings of a child's brain.

Looking forward to reading it in French now as that was highly recommended by a friend.

I was first asked to read this book when I was 10 years old and at the time I thought it was the most meaningless things I have ever seen.

Through the course of my life after that I have re-read this book a multitude of times and each time it seems to make more and more sense...

I dedicated the last day of the worst year of my life to reading the Little Prince once more and it brought me peace and even more understanding.

I will forever be grateful to the author for writing it and hope he found his little planet with his little rose at the end.

A crazy, funny, deep book. There were so many parts that I read and reread, to fully absorb the meaning. I loved how the author was poking fun at humans and their strange ways. The chapter about the businessman was so dangerously close to the truth, omg! So was the chapter about the trains. A quick read too.    “It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Um clássico “infantil”
Um clássico sem dúvidas alguma. Uma história curta, porém que te prende e te cativa. Uma ótima reflexão acerca da sociedade e de como os adultos agem e veem o mundo, houve momentos que me peguei pensando, como conseguimos fazer coisas tão óbviamente incoerrentes sem ao menos notar isto. O mais incrível é que o autor faz toda esta crítica sem perder o tom fantasioso e fabuloso que o livro possui, fazendo com que, adultos possam ver claramente através de suas críticas, porém, ao mesmo tempo faz um ótimo papel como livro infantil, mesmo sem as crianças entenderem as mensagens nas entrelinhas.

Na minha opinião, a cena com a raposa é o ponto alto deste livro, sem dúvidas alguma. Achei interessante o fato da raposa ser a personagem mais “sábia”, pois, a raposa é considerada um animal astúto, achei bem legal esse paralelo, intencionalmente ou não intencionalmente.

A história do pequeno príncipe com a rosa é outra parte marcante da história, é bem bonito ver ele querendo voltar a encontrar a sua rosa. Outra mensagem bem marcante para mim, foi a importancia das coisas invisíveis aos olhos para nós, porém na maioria das vezes nós só as ignoramos sem ter a menor ideia de que muitas das vezes são as coisas mais importantes para nós, achei bem interessante esta mensagem.

tell me why the love this little prince had for his rose fulfilled me more than any of the smutty books I have read this year ever could...

this is such a cute, short & imaginative read + I just really like the ideas proposed in this book with his cute lil planet and his cute lil friends and his cute lil rose and his cute lil laughing stars thing. so cute. the narrator's cute lil drawings were nice too.

faith in humanity: restored.
i want more