You could be excused for thinking that this book is one containing a simple story for young children about a Little Prince. How wrong you would be! This is far from the truth: it is much more. It is a complex story containing lots of ambiguities about a child with golden hair. These are all eruditely discussed before the actual story begins, in a section entitled "How It All Began". "Is The Little Prince a story written for children or is it a meditation intended for adults?"

The Art of Living is discussed, along with a system of values, and the train of thought behind them is the unifying element. You are invited to "look at the book, and allow yourself to travel from one image to the next... " It was written and published more than 50 years ago in the USA, and the author was a Frenchman who illustrated the book himself; it was later translated by Kathryn Woods. The Little Prince is still very popular and has now been translated into many languages. Shortly after it was first written, the author died--disappearing together with his plane somewhere over the Mediterranean. This Gift edition contains all the original illustrations, plus some more original drawings that came to light later and have been published here for the first time.--Susan Naylor

On one level this work is the story of an airman's discovery of a small boy from another planet in the desert and his stories of intergalactic travel, and on the other hand it is a thought-provoking allegory of the human condition.

2008-06-02 almost poetry

Anyone who would say this book could only be enjoyed by children are utterly wrong. I'm not a child and i thought it was a beautifully written and inspiring story. It tells the tale of the little prince who wishes to explore another planet as he has always lived on his own (apart from his friend the rose). I won't go into the plot too much because to be honest it was a while ago that i read it and i wouldn't want to get it wrong, but one chapter in particular that i remember being quite touching is when the little prince talks about his friendship with a fox. The book is almost poetic, and at times i found it quite sad, but i would reccommend it to anyone, no matter what age.