The Little Prince
The Little Prince (French Le Petit Prince), published in 1943, is French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous novel, which he wrote while staying at a hotel in New York.Ostensibly a children's book, it makes several profound and idealistic points about life and love. In it, Saint-Exupéry imagines himself stranded in the Sahara Desert where he meets a young extra-terrestrial prince. In their conversations, the author reveals his own views about the follies of mankind and the simple truths that people seem to forget as they grow older. The essence of the book is contained in the famous line uttered by the fox to the little prince: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux" (One sees rightly only with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes).
The novel includes a number of drawings by Saint-Exupéry himself, which are reproduced in most versions.
The Little Prince has been translated into many languages and, to date, has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and turned into an anime series that ran 39 episodes.
Story
The Businessman, chapter 13Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The prince lives on an asteroid, B612, which has three volcanoes (two active, and one dormant) and a rose. He spends his days caring for his asteroid, pulling out the baobab trees that are constantly trying to take root there. The trees will rip his little world apart if they are allowed to grow. The Prince leaves one day to see what the rest of the universe is like, and visits several other asteroids each of which is inhabited by an adult who is foolish in his own way:
The King who can "control" the stars by ordering them to do what they would anyway. He then relates this to human subjects; it is the citizen's duty to obey, but only if the king's demands are good for the citizens.
The Conceited Man who wants to be admired by everyone, but lives alone on his planet. Anything that is not a compliment he cannot hear.
The drunkard who drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking.
The Businessman who is always busy counting the stars he believes he owns. He wants to use them to buy more stars. The Prince then goes on to define property. The Prince owns the flower and volcanoes on his planet because he cares for them and they care for him. Because one cannot maintain the stars, he argues, the Businessman cannot own them.
The lamplighter who lives on an asteroid which rotates once a minute. Long ago, he was charged with the task of lighting the lamp at night and extinguishing it in the morning. At that point, the asteroid revolved at a reasonable rate, and he had time to rest. As time went on, the rotation sped up. Refusing to turn his back on his work, he now lights and extinguishes the lamp once a minute, getting no rest. (The prince actually empathizes with the Lamplighter, who is the only adult to care about something other than himself.)
The geographer who spends all of his time making maps, but never leaves his desk to explore, going on the pretext that it is the job of an explorer to do so. Even if an explorer were to visit the Geographer, the Geographer is very doubting of any explorer's character and would most likely disregard the report. He doesn't trust things he hasn't seen with his own eyes, yet will not leave his desk.
Out of professional interest, the geographer asks the Prince to describe his asteroid. The prince describes the volcanoes and the rose. "We don't record flowers", answers the geographer, because they are only temporary. The prince is shocked and hurt to learn that his flower will someday be gone. The geographer recommends that he visit the Earth.
On the Earth, the prince sees a whole row of rosebushes, and is downcast because he thought that his was the only one in the whole universe. He then meets and tames a fox, who explains to the prince that his rose is unique and special, because it is the one that he loves.
The prince meets the narrator and asks him to draw a sheep. Not knowing how to draw a sheep, he draws what he knows, a boa with a bulging stomach, a drawing which previous viewers mistook for a hat. "No! No!" exclaims the prince. "I don't want a boa with an elephant inside! I want a sheep..." He tries a few sheep drawings, which the prince rejects. Finally he draws a box, which he explains has the sheep inside. The prince, who can see the sheep inside the box just as well as he can see the elephant in the boa, accepts it.
In the desert, the prince meets a snake that claims to have the power to return him to his home planet. After some thought, he bids an emotional farewell to the narrator, then allows the snake to bite him. The next morning when the narrator looks for the prince, he finds his body has disappeared, leaving no physical trace.
