This is a beautifully bound gift edition of this touching and wise classic. A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper...Thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed the world forever for its readers.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Young Osment (The Sixth Sense; Pay It Forward) again proves his mettle as an actor, giving voice to the Little Prince in this crisp, full-cast production of the literary classic. He approaches the role with a gentleness and sensitivity that touches the heart and never sounds maudlin. As the pilot whose plane has crashed in the Sahara, Gere plays it low-key, creating a perfect partner for Osment's interplanetary-traveling, wise-beyond-his-years prince. Gere expresses just the right mix of amusement and bewilderment as the prince interrupts the pilot's efforts to repair his plane with a request that he draw a sheep. The adept performances capture the timeless nature of Saint-Exup‚ry's fable about how a child sees the important things in life much more clearly than many adults do. All ages. (Dec.) birth.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From School Library Journal
Gr 1-4-Actors Richard Gere and Haley Joel Osment read Antoine de Saint-Exupery's book with the assistance of several other actors and actresses. A pilot stranded in the desert awakens one morning to see, standing before him, a most extraordinary little fellow, who teaches him the secret of what is really important in life. Gere reads the part of the Pilot, and Osment takes the part of the Little Prince. The reading by all the participants is accomplished with great skill and feeling. Piano and strings provide very lovely background music composed by Alexandre Stankevicius. This abridged recording of the classic book should be welcome in most library collections.
Beverly Bixler, San Antonio Public Library, TX
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY (1900-1944) was born in Lyons, France. He took his first flight at the age of eleven, and became a pilot at twenty-six. He was a pioneer of international commercial aviation and flew in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His writings include The Little Prince; Wind, Sand and Stars; and Southern Mail. In 1944, while serving with his French air squadron, he disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Let me start by saying that this is one of my favorite books. I read it before at least twice, once when a young girl --or an adolescent, another time in my twenties, and possibly a decade later. Lately, I was asked to place chapter 26 in its context. The occasion was a sad but moving one. That chapter had been read during a funeral, and now we were a group of women celebrating the interrupted life of a sixteen year old young man.
Because I was given that task --a lovely one at that-- I went on to find my old edition of Le Petit Prince and read it once more. It was a masterpiece before; it is a masterpiece now. After all these years, it has remained wrinkle free. Vivid. Vibrant. Witty. Filled with wisdom.
What struck me this time was the structure --the box motif. First, when the narrator humorously declares that he had to give up a career as a brilliant artist because the adults couldn't tell that he had drawn a boa swallowing an elephant. Instead, they saw a hat. Incidentally, a hat boxes a head. They refused to see beneath the surface, or were too lazy to try. So here we have a creator who renounces creating, simply because his audience lacks imagination. Although, in exchange, he becomes an aviator, thus getting closer to the stars. Amusing in appearance. Tragic in content. The boa is the box. The elephant is the content.
If you take these two animals for what they stand for, you can say that intelligence (for which the elephant is known) is being constricted. Absurdly suffocated.
Isn't that the essence of the whole story?
It's all in these first pages. All the satire and the spirituality. The rest is poetic elaboration. But what poetic elaboration!
Let's meet le petit prince who asks the narrator, whose plane breaks down in the desert, to draw him a sheep. Although the plane accident is based on a real Saint Exupéry's experience, the desert itself is a marvelous metaphysical metaphor for the white page / canvas / creativity / possibility.) When the narrator humors him, none of the sheep drawn by the aviator pleases the little prince. One looks sick, one looks old. Eager to repair his plane and starting to lack patience, the aviator sketches a crate and tells the little prince that his sheep is inside. That's exactly what I was looking for, says the young boy. The imagination of the child completes the work of the artist. In the world of childhood, creator and creation are one. There is a sense of unity that adulthood eventually breaks apart. Classifies. Categorizes. Boxes in.
For Saint Exupéry's motif of box has a double entendre. The first entendre is liberating. Open the box with your imagination, and you will see infinite possibilities. The little prince knows that. The other entendre is more familiar to us. A box implies something limited, locked, conventional. To oppose this notion comes the expression, "Thinking outside the box." So when our petit prince visits the Conceited Man, or the King, or the Businessman, or the Drunkard, each lives in his own sphere, basically unaware of his surroundings and victim of the isolation he has himself created. In other words, instead of giving and expanding his spirit toward the universe, each one of these men builds a box around himself. No wonder le petit prince thinks these are strange creatures and tries to get away from them as fast as he can. Only the lamplighter starts to get it when he seeks the contemplation of sunrises happening every minute on his planet. But only after listening to his oneiric visitor.
The desert, of course, is the opposite of a box. And if basically devoid of humans, it is not devoid of animals. The most important lesson le petit prince learns there comes from a fox in what is perhaps the most moving chapter of the book. The fox, who holds the wisdom of the heart, sends him back to his planet and to his rose.
But we're not over with the box theme just yet. There is the little prince's body now, abandoned by the prince's soul with the help of a snake bite, so that he can reach his planet more quickly. There is the box drawn by the narrator that contains the sheep that the prince takes with him to live on his planet with his rose. There are the intrinsic motives of life and death, that Saint Exupéry un-boxes. Not with answers, but with more questions. For ultimately, if Le Petit Prince mocks, satirizes, poeticizes, it is not a work that gives affirmations, but a work that wonders. It is a work that explores. The work of a writer / aviator.
A work where innocence and wisdom go hand in hand.
A work that opens our head --which should never --ever-- be a box.
P.S. I read Le Petit Prince in its original language (which is also my native tongue). But I have been told, and also read that the English translation to rely upon is the one by Katherine Woods. A reviewer here called Allie Jones makes a very good case of this. So I would urge any new reader of The Little Prince who is not familiar with the French language to follow Allie Jones' advice and obtain a copy of Katherine Woods' version of Saint Exupéry's masterpiece. It is unfortunate that Ms Woods' work is out of print, but used copies of her (more accurate) vision of The Little Prince are available.
Because I was given that task --a lovely one at that-- I went on to find my old edition of Le Petit Prince and read it once more. It was a masterpiece before; it is a masterpiece now. After all these years, it has remained wrinkle free. Vivid. Vibrant. Witty. Filled with wisdom.
What struck me this time was the structure --the box motif. First, when the narrator humorously declares that he had to give up a career as a brilliant artist because the adults couldn't tell that he had drawn a boa swallowing an elephant. Instead, they saw a hat. Incidentally, a hat boxes a head. They refused to see beneath the surface, or were too lazy to try. So here we have a creator who renounces creating, simply because his audience lacks imagination. Although, in exchange, he becomes an aviator, thus getting closer to the stars. Amusing in appearance. Tragic in content. The boa is the box. The elephant is the content.
If you take these two animals for what they stand for, you can say that intelligence (for which the elephant is known) is being constricted. Absurdly suffocated.
Isn't that the essence of the whole story?
It's all in these first pages. All the satire and the spirituality. The rest is poetic elaboration. But what poetic elaboration!
Let's meet le petit prince who asks the narrator, whose plane breaks down in the desert, to draw him a sheep. Although the plane accident is based on a real Saint Exupéry's experience, the desert itself is a marvelous metaphysical metaphor for the white page / canvas / creativity / possibility.) When the narrator humors him, none of the sheep drawn by the aviator pleases the little prince. One looks sick, one looks old. Eager to repair his plane and starting to lack patience, the aviator sketches a crate and tells the little prince that his sheep is inside. That's exactly what I was looking for, says the young boy. The imagination of the child completes the work of the artist. In the world of childhood, creator and creation are one. There is a sense of unity that adulthood eventually breaks apart. Classifies. Categorizes. Boxes in.
For Saint Exupéry's motif of box has a double entendre. The first entendre is liberating. Open the box with your imagination, and you will see infinite possibilities. The little prince knows that. The other entendre is more familiar to us. A box implies something limited, locked, conventional. To oppose this notion comes the expression, "Thinking outside the box." So when our petit prince visits the Conceited Man, or the King, or the Businessman, or the Drunkard, each lives in his own sphere, basically unaware of his surroundings and victim of the isolation he has himself created. In other words, instead of giving and expanding his spirit toward the universe, each one of these men builds a box around himself. No wonder le petit prince thinks these are strange creatures and tries to get away from them as fast as he can. Only the lamplighter starts to get it when he seeks the contemplation of sunrises happening every minute on his planet. But only after listening to his oneiric visitor.
The desert, of course, is the opposite of a box. And if basically devoid of humans, it is not devoid of animals. The most important lesson le petit prince learns there comes from a fox in what is perhaps the most moving chapter of the book. The fox, who holds the wisdom of the heart, sends him back to his planet and to his rose.
But we're not over with the box theme just yet. There is the little prince's body now, abandoned by the prince's soul with the help of a snake bite, so that he can reach his planet more quickly. There is the box drawn by the narrator that contains the sheep that the prince takes with him to live on his planet with his rose. There are the intrinsic motives of life and death, that Saint Exupéry un-boxes. Not with answers, but with more questions. For ultimately, if Le Petit Prince mocks, satirizes, poeticizes, it is not a work that gives affirmations, but a work that wonders. It is a work that explores. The work of a writer / aviator.
A work where innocence and wisdom go hand in hand.
A work that opens our head --which should never --ever-- be a box.
P.S. I read Le Petit Prince in its original language (which is also my native tongue). But I have been told, and also read that the English translation to rely upon is the one by Katherine Woods. A reviewer here called Allie Jones makes a very good case of this. So I would urge any new reader of The Little Prince who is not familiar with the French language to follow Allie Jones' advice and obtain a copy of Katherine Woods' version of Saint Exupéry's masterpiece. It is unfortunate that Ms Woods' work is out of print, but used copies of her (more accurate) vision of The Little Prince are available.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Freya
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have absolutely adored the Little Prince since I was a little girl. I thought I'd buy a basic back-up copy to give to a friend as cost-friendly as I could and it was a huge mistake!
This BN Publishing version of The Little Prince is HORRIBLE!!! DO NOT BUY IT FOR ANYONE, especially if they have never heard the real story before! I own several copies of this book and this is the most AWFUL translation from the original French that I've ever read. The pictures are black and white and awful quality and it completely misses the point and beauty of the original story in EVERY WAY!! It's DREADFUL!!!!
This BN Publishing version of The Little Prince is HORRIBLE!!! DO NOT BUY IT FOR ANYONE, especially if they have never heard the real story before! I own several copies of this book and this is the most AWFUL translation from the original French that I've ever read. The pictures are black and white and awful quality and it completely misses the point and beauty of the original story in EVERY WAY!! It's DREADFUL!!!!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Richard Gere is the principle narrator in this superbly produced CD format version of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic children's story The Little Prince. This fifty minute production is a technically flawless audio version of a pilot stranded in the desert and wakening one morning to see before him a little fellow who captures the hearts and imaginations of all who read (and now hear) this remarkable modern fable. Haley Joel Osment gives voice to the Little Prince, while Marina Orsini, Adam Frost, Richard Allen, Dave Walsh, Ara Y. Kentenjian, Patrick Selitz, and Mickey Kessler lend their talents to this multicast production, with music by Alexandre Stankevicius. The Little Prince is highly entertaining, enthusiastically recommended, and a "must" for school and community library audiobook CD collections.
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