Le Petit Prince

...or widely known as 'The Little Prince'.
Written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, this book was originally published in French and is often used as beginner book's for French language student.

It's been recited in my previous post that I'm gonna write a review about this novella.
So here I am, fulfilling my promise.

This isn't my first attempt of reading this book, actually.
I've read it some time ago, and by the moment I finished reading it, I wasn't quite impressed by any features of this book.
I don't know whether it's because the translated version (Indonesian) I've been reading or I was too little to understand.

too little to understand.

Ha! We often think that we, adults, are waaay more in the upperhand of children, don't we?

Thus, this book somewhat altered my perspective.

The very first chapter of this book describes about how the character 'I' (narrator's point of view) who ever drawn this object when he was a little boy: an elephant which was being digested by a boa constrictor.

But, adults recognized that drawing as a hat (I do personally think that it would indeed looked like a hat, if you miss the small dot that meant to be the eye of the boa constrictor).

Then The Little Prince met the narrator, and in instance he recognized the drawing as what the narrator intended it to be.

That scene settles of what perspective this tale would be told: children's mind,
for there's a theory that says: a child's drawing may looks abstract (to adults) but children can recognize each others' drawing.

The Little Prince himself was described as a little boy who travelled along from one planet to another until he finally arrived on Earth. Each planet was inhabited by individuals which represents adults in their various ridiculous characters. They were: The King, The Conceited Man, The Businessman, The Drunkard, The Lamplighter, and The Geographer.

The King

The Businessman

The Drunkard

The Lamplighter

The Geographer

Those individuals, which told in the tenth chapter until the fifteenth, picture the characters of adults in extreme way of personification. For example, The Conceited Man who had been excessively proud of himself, craving for praise, and can't hear anything which is not considered as a form of adoration.
This actually satirize people who profoundly obsessed with respect.

The Conceited Man

One may say, " Who doesn't like being flattered anyway?"
True, but at some point these people might try to find any way, as well as doing bad deeds, in order just to receive higher status for the sake of praise.
Adults are like that.


But The Little Prince, with the innocence of a child, respond to this,
"...why should that mean so much to you anyway?"


I'm not gonna write any further about the other characters :)


The rest of the chapters told about The Little Prince's days of wandering on Earth. Each events represents things in life which being elaborated beautifully in words by Saint-Exupery.

The Little Prince and his rose

Like, the relationship between The Little Prince and The Fox, also between The Little Prince and his flower, teaches about love among two lovers, or could be friends. From The Fox, The Little Prince learnt how to love his rose, his only remarkable rose among the entire universe.

'Men have forgotten this basic truth,' said the fox. 'But you must not forget it. For what you have tamed, you become responsible forever. You are responsible forever'

'One runs the risk of crying a bit if one allows oneself to be tamed...'

'be tamed' here means if you put a feeling towards someone. Well said, eh?

I ended up profoundly fond of this novella after I finished reading it. Though it may be considered as a children's book, it left the readers with deep thinking afterwards and let it be widely interpreted. So yes, contrary to my first impression, this is one of the books I'd like to label:
a-must-read :)