Book Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Title: The Little Prince

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Translator: Richard Howard

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers

Pages: 96

Format: E-book

Published: June, 2000

Price: $6.99 -> Rp95.207 (Amazon)

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Date started: November 13, 2015 - Date finished: November 17, 2015

Synopsis:

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.

Review:

Le Petit Prince or mostly known as its translated title, The Little Prince is a story about a man who is a pilot that crashed his airplane in a desert. In that desert, he met a little boy with golden hair whom he later called The Little Prince. The Little Prince came from a small planet called B-612, Earth is actually not the first planet The Little Prince has travelled to, before coming to Earth he had visited some planets as well.

During those visits to different planets he met different people from those planets. He met a king who had none to rule over, a man who cared so much about his vanity, a drunkard, and a geographer. During each of those meetings The Little Prince learned a lot of things. Then, the Little Prince came to Earth and first he met a fox and then he met a pilot whose airplane had just crashed in a desert.

The Little Prince had a peculiar inquiry when he met the man. He asked the man to draw him a sheep. The man was confused as to what a little boy is doing in the middle of a desert (that is before he found out that the Little Prince wasn't from this planet). The man actually has little drawing experience having only ever drawn an elephant inside a boa constrictor. During this chance encounter with The Little Prince, the man actually learned a lot from the golden-haired boy.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

I really, really do want to love this book as much as others have. I really do find this book to be a wonderful piece of children's literature, I can't mention anything that I disliked from this book as I didn't find any that bothered me but in the end my heart, my gut, and every part of me just can't give this book more stars.

I know that the fact that I didn't give this book a stellar rating and a justified review is because I haven't really understood the philosophical meaning of this book fully. I know bits and pieces of what this book is trying to say, which is sometimes when we become an adult we forgot about "the childish part" of ourselves, we become narrow-minded. I am wondering though whether or not this book is a work of fiction or based on a true event (if you've read this book you would understand what I'm saying).

All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.

Meanwhile, the part about the Little Prince with his rose and the part with the fox taught us about compassion. Those are the things I could gather from this book. I am really sorry about this weird review, which I think didn't compliment the greatness of this book. I'm just trying to convey my thoughts about this book.

From the bottom of my heart, I do really really want to love this book. I want this book to be close to my heart. Even some of my friends have said that this book is one of the best books they've ever read. But the sad truth is I can't give this book more than the rating that I gave in this review. For all of you reading this review, I encourage you to ignore this review and go read the book. I don't want to be the one to discourage you from this great work of literature. For those of you who've read this book and loved it, ignore this review and continue loving this book.

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