The (re)discovery of the Little Prince, a moving lesson in life

” Please draw me a sheep. This sentence has gone around the planet, to the depths of the Amazon. Almost eighty years after its publication, The little Princeand its message of humanist hope, has not aged a bit.

Sold in more than 200 million copies worldwide, the mythical work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, written and published in the United States in 1943, is the most translated book in history, in more than 500 languages ​​and dialects (the Bible being a religious text). Every year again, The little Prince sold 5 million copies around the world.

A universal philosophical work under the air of a children’s tale

The little Prince, it is the story of an aviator – the narrator -, Saint-Exupéry, who, following an engine failure, has to land in disaster in the Sahara desert. In the aviator’s real life, he confused a cloud with a dune… He then met a melancholy young boy with golden hair, the little prince, who had come from another planet to favor ” of a migration of wild birds “. Each chapter recounts one of his encounters with adults “.

” I never wrote a truer story notes the writer on one of the manuscripts. The fox is the fennec fox crossed in the desert, the rose with which the little prince is madly in love, it is Consuelo, his wife with whom he has a chaotic relationship but which he cannot do without, twig à la ” a little touchy vanity » and with thorns like « claws “. ” But yes, I love you, said the flower. You didn’t know about it, my fault. »

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry intends, by recounting his personal stories in an allegorical way, to sensitize his contemporaries – children as well as adults -, as well as future generations, to the threat which hangs over a humanity too forgetful of itself, which has become incapable of grasping the essential and the beauty of his condition. The reading of Little Prince is an ode to fraternity, to universality, to love and its disappointments, a secular bible “, in the words of the writer Michel Bussi, specialist in the work. And the spare writing in no way erases the scope of Saint-Exupéry’s message, of his symbolic conception of life.

As for the watercolors, they are inseparable from the text; the father of Little Prince cannot write without scribbling, whether in his correspondence or his manuscripts. Drawing represents for him a way of being in touch with his childhood. ” This is one of the great singularities of this book, to analyse Alban Cherryspecialist in Little Prince and curator of the exhibition. Because very few 20th century authors illustrated their books themselves. »

The timeless story and the writing dotted with poetic illustrations have made this book famous, an essential part of children’s literature whose philosophical significance is considerable. A comforting book of life. ” What makes the desert beautiful is that it hides a well somewhere… »

Saint-Exupéry, a man driven by a humanist ideal

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is not only a writer, he is also a poet, aviator, explorer, journalist, inventor, philosopher, driven all his life by this humanist ideal, the real driving force behind his work. Thus, alongside the original manuscript, kept at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York and hitherto never presented to the French public, are also presented at the Museum of Decorative Arts watercolors, sketches and drawings – mostly unpublished – but also photographs, poems, newspaper clippings and excerpts from correspondence.

The visitor discovers, in the dark and under a starry sky, how Saint-Exupéry worked, on what media, where his inspiration came from, who his friends were, etc. Many of its letters are dotted with the “star flower” which is also found in The little Princethe most poetic symbol of cosmology: “ If you love a flower that’s in a star, it’s sweet at night to look at the sky “. We also discover the butterfly hunter, a character who was not retained in the final version of the Little Prince. We also understand that the character of the little prince appears on drawings in other forms from the 1930s, such as his double interior which gives a glimpse of Saint-Exupéry’s moods. The manuscript of Little Princeon very fine American Onionskin-style paper, is stained with traces of coffee and cigarette butts, so many traces of the author’s daily life.

” It is, in our lifetime, the only time that we will see so many plays by Saint-Exupéry gathered in the same place. “confided on February 17 on France Inter Thomas Rivieregreat-grandnephew of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Herald of the aviation pioneers (he was killed at the controls of his Lockheed P-38 Lightning over the Mediterranean on July 31, 1944), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quickly became a renowned writer, from his first novel Courier South in 1929 (he was 29 at the time) at Night Flight in 1931. He wrote The little Prince in New York and Long Island, where he was then in exile, between June and November 1942. At the origin of this adventure, an order from the American publisher Reynal & Hitchcock who wanted Saint-Exupéry to produce a tale of Christmas, when the United States enters the war.

“ What does it mean “tame”? said the little prince. It’s a thing too forgotten, said the fox. It means “to create links”. At a time of rising nationalism and border closures, the little prince’s message of humanism is more relevant than ever. ” It is madness to hate all roses because a thorn has pricked you, to give up all dreams because one of them has not come true, to give up all attempts because one failed… It is madness to condemn all friendships because one of them betrayed you, to no longer believe in love just because one of them was unfaithful, to throw away all chances to be happy just because something went wrong. There will always be another opportunity, another friend, another love, a new strength. For every ending there is always a new beginning. »

The (re)discovery of Little Prince is a moving lesson in life which, if it accompanied every human being from childhood to old age, would undeniably give a different image of today’s world.

► “Meeting the Little Prince”, at Decorative Arts Museum in Paris, until June 26, 2022.