Little Prince And Letter to a Hostage (Penguin Modern Classics)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943 only a year before his plane vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. Nearly eighty years later this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power.The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little prince who asks him to draw a sheep. ""In the face of an overpowering mystery you don't dare disobey"" the narrator recalls. ""Absurd as it seemed a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket."" And so begins their dialogue which stretches the narrator's imagination in all sorts of surprising childlike directions. About the Author Writer and aviatorAntoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) was born into an aristocratic French family at the turn of the century. Saint-Exupéry was preoccupied with aviation from a young age a passion which would lead him into the French Air Force. His first two booksSouthern Mail andNight Flight are distinguished by a poetic evocation of the romance and discipline of flying. Later works includingWind Sand and Stars andFlight to Arras stress his humanistic philosophy. Saint-Exupéry's popular children's bookThe Little Prince is also read by adults for its allegorical meaning. In 1944 Saint-Exupéry's plane disappeared during a mission in World War II. <p><i>Look at my planet. It is directly above us. But how far away it is!</i><br><br>Celebrating the 80th anniversary of one of the most famous stories in the world, a beautiful Puffin paperback edition translated from the original French by Theo Cuffe. <br><br>The timeless, enchanting story of the little prince who lives on a tiny planet with three volcanoes and a haughty flower, which he must protect from the baobabs, the bad seeds. The rulers of the other planets he visits all suffer from the cares and stupidities of the everyday world. Only the little prince, through his clear, loving eyes, knows that the simplest of things can be of the utmost importance.<br><br>Translated by T. V. F. Cuffe, and with the original illustrations, the story is complete and unabridged.</p>