The Little Prince

I actually never read this as a child/teen, though I was aware of it as a classic. Having read it now, I'd say it's a unique and poignant reflection on what makes life worthwhile–and it deserves its status. In the beginning I was a little confused at times, but the narrative begins to feel like a familiar “journey” story. (It gave me Phantom Tollbooth vibes, even though the two have very different contexts.) Some of the revelations at the end are familiar, too, but phrased in a very sincere and thoughtful way. It left me feeling a little nostalgic but also warm & fuzzy–because, to some extent, the ending is what you choose make of it.

While this is actually my first time reading it, I have two very sentimental memories attached to The Little Prince. The first is a hazy childhood memory of an animated version which I haven't yet tracked down. The other - and the most special - is from high school; I vividly remember sitting in the auditorium during a lunch break with my dear friend, Wendi, as she read a good chunk of it to me in French. Of course I didn't understand any of it, but between Wendi's expressive delivery and the charming illustrations, it was kind of magical.

I reget to say that the experience of reading it finally in English wasn't quite as magical, but that is my own fault (and I haven't deducted stars for it).

I STRONGLY recommend avoiding this cheap Wordsworth edition. I usually love these, but it doesn't do any justice to the illustrations. In fact some of them were horrifingly distorted; they're converted to black-and-white and are very low fidelity. It's not fun, don't do it.

After sampling some of the audio versions, I also suspect there are better translations out there too.

But, as for the story itself, it was charming and sweet, with a little whistful sadness, but it didn't quite feel as deep as I was expecting. It was quite light, and there were several moments where I thought it was going to plumb some further philosophical depths, but it just kind of moved onto the next thing. This isn't a criticism - I enjoyed how it would introduce themes and then let them be. It made for a delightful and digestible read.

It's clear why The Little Prince has captured imaginations the world over, but please do yourself a favor and get a copy in full-color with a good translation. Or even better, if possible, have one of your favorite people read it to you in French.

Such a comfy read. Chắc là cuốn sách Manh thích nhất, đọc đi đọc lại hoài không chán. Just read this excerpt from the book:

“

You’re beautiful, but you’re empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you –the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she’s more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: […..]

Because she is MY rose.”

“

Has everyone read The Little Prince? Not me. Wasn't part of my school curriculum and otherwise never got around to it. But then I got this cool book for Christmas. It's not the full story, it's a graphic novel version of it and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, the Frenchman Joann Sfar. If you're unfamiliar with M. Sfar's work, check out Vampire Loves and the very cool children's books: Little Vampire Goes To School, and Little Vampire Does Kung Fu. But anyway, I found The Little Prince to be interesting and somewhat strange little story. Also kinda sweet. When my daughter saw me looking at it, she promptly climbed into my lap and demanded that I read it to her. Her brother came by and joined us. I read the whole thing aloud to them in two sittings. They were fascinated. This one is a keeper. Supposedly M. Sfar is most well-known to American audiences from his book, The Rabbi's Cat, though I hadn't heard of it.

Challenge: Read a book you started but never finished Read a book that was originally written in a different language

This book is not for me, definitely. I tried several times to read it in the past and could not get into it so I would never finish it.
This time was no different. I forced myself to finish it because of the book challenge and I will NEVER do that again. I suffered every time I read some passages, I dreaded the moment I had to pick it up and I got frustrated that not finishing this was slowing my reading.