2004-07-13 Drawing a sheep, in Latin

'The Little Prince' is a wonderful story, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), a French writer who also worked to fight the Germans during World War II. The publication story of 'The Little Prince' is an adventure in-and-of itself, as it happened at the height of the war, and just a year prior to Saint-Exupéry disappearance over the Mediterranean while flying a mission with his French air squadron. Saint-Exupéry wrote several books, and illustrated them himself, but 'The Little Prince', about the visitor from outer space not so different from us, but perplexed by our ways, and homesick for his home, touches people to this day in profound ways, making this classic an enduring one.

Translated into Latin, this enigmatic classic becomes even more mysterious, yet (for those who know Latin) still a touching and moving story. Books such as 'The Little Prince' translated into Latin make wonderful tools for learning the language. The book here is translated by Richard Howard, a Pulitzer-Prize winning author, who has more than 150 translation titles to his name. Saint-Exupéry's original artwork is incorporated here, in the proper placement according to the French original. They are in full colour throughout the book.

The language here is basic -- Saint-Exupéry wrote 'The Little Prince' both as a children's book and an adult's book, hence the vocabulary and basic writing, in any language, is fairly simple, another way in which the Latin translation, kept to an easy construction by Howard, helps in the learning of the foreign language.

A great book, one to let out of the box.