Le Petit Prince

Gosh how slack am I? I was full of vigor for the new year and then no posts for weeks. Oops.
I can say I've got a good excuse though, I've been job hunting in Lyon (still no success unfortunately). Fingers crossed!



But while I'm a lady of leisure, I do have plenty of time on my hands for reading!



Le Petit Prince is now finished (a bit of an effort I must say, given that it was in French and I had my dictionary next to me for much of it!).



It's a charming little book, I can see why it's such a French institution (my partner tells me it's almost a rite of passage for les enfants, especially around Lyon). A quick synopsis:

Le Petit Prince

Le Petit Prince tells the story of the Prince who lives on asteroid B-612, and is tasked with taking care of and ruling his little planet. During his time there, he falls in love with the beautiful rose, however she doesn't love him back.

He gallantly decides to take off on an adventure to the other asteroids that are in his universe, and the book goes on to detail his encounters with the various intriguing characters on each asteroid.
In my opinion the characters seem to be a social commentary from Exupéry on certain real-life "characters", e.g. the businessman whose greed and desire for control over his asteroid disgusts the Prince.



The Prince then visits Earth, where he goes through many trials and tribulations. The scale and emptiness of the planet in contrast to his tiny asteroid frightens and depresses him, as he begins to feel that he is not the great Prince that he once thought he was. He also discovers that his beautiful rose is not the only one in the universe, a disturbing thought as he had believed it to be unique.
I believe this is Exupéry's way of demonstrating that we are all just tiny particles on the Earth's surface, and shouldn't think ourselves more important than we really are.



In all, this is a lovely book for children on one level, with gorgeous illustrations by the author himself, and yet it is also a clever social commentary when read from the adult perspective.
Exupéry highlights the sometimes futile nature of human life, where we rush from place to place without stopping to smell the roses. He mentions that only children bother to look out the window on a train journey through the countryside.


Probably a nice little lesson to end with - it's not the destination, but the journey that counts.

Next book: 1984 by George Orwell.... stay tuned!