The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A pilot forced to land in the Sahara meets a little prince. The wise and enchanting stories the prince tells of his own planet with its three volcanoes and a haughty flower are unforgettable.
This is a very special book to me because I picked it up in a charity shop five years ago and noticed the special message inside. I’ll never know what the giver’s friend was going through, or why the book ended up in that shop; I can only hope it was a happy ending, and appreciate this book was given to a friend with all the love in the world. I can, however, completely and utterly understand why it was this book above all others that was given during a difficult time.
At first glance, the book is gorgeous to flick through. Beautiful watercolour illustrations pepper almost every page, and these alone are enough to make one assume this is a story for children. Do not be fooled; adults too can enjoy these small drawings, and the story itself is one of importance for us. Deep deep down, you remember being a child, but you also know there is no way of going back to that playful innocence where everything new holds some kind of magic.
The prince spends the novel educating both the narrator and the reader with timeless lessons, filling both with wonder and inspiration with every turn of the page. I see myself as one of the very cynical grown-ups, who often have great matters of importance to attend to, with no time for frivolities. But I know the reason I loved this novel so much is because I'm sick of a serious, fact-driven life; I'm fed up with communicating only with other grown-ups who also lead these types of lives; I'm exhausted with things being branded as important, when they don't hold much importance at all. I loved this novel because I would like nothing more than to meet a tiny golden alien who could teach me to see with my heart, to become responsible for those I spend all of my time on, and to look beyond the facts and figures of life.
From the danger of narrow-mindedness to being spiritually fulfilled, the prince shows us all what's important, and how grown-ups are strange. Take some of your innocent, childlike bravery, along with an hour of your day, and feel yourself transported back into the mind of the little prince within you.
Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
