"Little Prince": reviews of the book. Exupery, "The Little Prince": a summary

Antoine de Saint-Exupery is at the same time a pioneer of aviation and a famous French writer. He was born in Lyons (France) in 1900. From an early age, the boy dreamed of a life full of adventure, he wanted to become a naval officer. Unfortunately, he did not pass the exam at the naval school and decided to become a pilot, despite the fact that this profession was very dangerous at that time.

For Saint-Exupery, flying was not just the control of an airplane, it was a time of meditation, thinking. In the air, the writer thought deeply about loneliness, friendship, the meaning of life, freedom. He decided to publish his reflections in a book that proved to be very successful. When his career in the field of aviation ceased to bring new successes, Saint-Exupéry decided to take up creative work. At first he became a journalist and traveled to Spain, Russia and Germany. He also wrote two philosophical books on aviation - "Night Flight" (1932) and "Wind, Sand and Stars" (1939). Nevertheless, while remaining true to his love of piloting, he continued to fly when there was such an opportunity.

In 1939, when France began the war with Germany, Exupery was drafted into the military as a military pilot. France, however, was soon defeated and occupied by Hitler's troops. Saint-Exupery decided to leave his homeland and settle in the United States, where he continued his writing career. In New York in 1943 he published his most famous book - "The Little Prince". Since its publication, more than 25 million copies have been sold in 75 countries.

In 1942, when American troops landed in North Africa, Saint-Exupery decided to join the US Army as a pilot. Since he was 42 years old, and this is a significant age for aviation, permission was not obtained immediately. But Saint-Exupéry did not give up. Finally, he was given a plane. He made many flights to occupied France. July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupery went to his last mission. His plane was shot down by the Germans over the Mediterranean Sea.

"Little Prince": summary, reviews

The narrator, the pilot of the plane, is suffering an accident in the Sahara desert. His plane is badly damaged, he remains alone with a very scarce supply of food and water. When the pilot ponders his predicament, the Little Prince approaches him (short, read below) - a serious blond little boy who asks the narrator to draw a lamb. A man fulfills his request, and they become friends. The pilot learns that the Little Prince has flown here from a small planet, which the boy calls the Asteroid-325, and people from the planet Earth call it Asteroid B-612.

The little prince takes great care of his planet, not allowing the bad seeds to germinate and guarding against the excessive spread of baobabs.

One day a mysterious rose appeared on the surface of the planet, and the boy fell in love with her.

After the prince caught her in a lie, he decided that he could no longer trust her. The boy decided to leave the planet. Despite the fact that at the last minute the Little Prince reconciled with the rose, he nevertheless went to explore other planets.

Collision with the world of adults

As narrator narrates, while traveling Little Prince (reviews of children and adults about the book read below) flies between two asteroids and for the first time encounters the strange world of adults. On the first six planets he visited, he met a king, an unreasonable man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lantern and a geographer, each of whom lived alone and was excessively preoccupied with the chosen profession. Such strange behavior seems to the boy simultaneously both amusing, and outrageous. He does not understand the desire of these people to be admired by everyone, as well as the desire to own a lot of unnecessary things.

The exception is the lantern, whose stubborn fidelity he admires, but otherwise the Little Prince does not find in adults a good example for himself, does not learn anything useful from them. Only from the geographer he receives new information that the flowers do not grow forever, and begins to miss the rose that he left on his planet.

Visiting the planet Earth

On the advice of a geographer, the Little Prince visits the Earth, but he lands in the heart of the desert and can not find a single person. Instead, he meets a snake, who speaks with riddles and gloomy hints that her deadly poison can send the Little Prince back to heaven if he so desires.

The boy does not accept this offer and continues his studies, stopping to talk with a flower with three petals and climb to the highest mountain that he managed to find, where he confuses his own echo with the voice of an invisible interlocutor. As a result, the Little Prince finds a rosary that surprises and depresses him - a rose from his planet told him that he is the only representative of his kind.

New acquaintances

The Prince makes friends with Lis, who teaches him that the most important things in life are able to see only the heart, that time spent away from the rose makes it even more attractive and special for him, that feelings make a person responsible for those creatures that he loves.

The little prince understands that although there are many other such plants, his love of the rose makes her unique, and therefore he is responsible for it. Despite this discovery, he still feels very lonely, because he is so far from his rose ... The prince ends the story with a description of the meeting with two men - the Switchman and the Seller.

Homecoming

The eighth day of the narrator's stay in the desert. At the suggestion of the Little Prince, they decide to go ahead to find food and drink. Water feeds their hearts in the same way as their bodies, and at this blissful moment both agree that very many people do not see what is really important in life. The mind of the Little Prince, however, is absorbed in the desire to return to his native planet to his rose, and he begins to negotiate with the snake about how to return. The narrator can repair the aircraft only the day before the anniversary of the Prince's stay on the planet, and he sadly leaves with his friend to the place where the Little Prince landed. The snake bites the Prince, and he falls silently on the sand.

The narrator regains peace once he can not find the Prince's body the day after the bite-he is sure that the boy has returned to his planet. The pilot is consoled by stars in which he hears the laughter of his friend. But often he finds sadness, he suddenly starts to think that the lamb, drawn by him, could eat the rose of the Little Prince.

In conclusion, the narrator shows the readers a picture with a desert landscape and asks us to stop for a minute under the stars if we suddenly find ourselves in this place and immediately let him know if the Little Prince has returned home.

Beautiful fairy tale?

Of all the books written in French over the last century, "The Little Prince" (a short review of contemporaries is presented below), certainly remains the most beloved work in many countries of the world. This is somewhat strange, since the meaning of the book, the purpose and intent of the author is still unclear, almost a century after it was published. In fact, it is amazing, but the first reviews of the book "The Little Prince" by Exupery, the reviews (the school was also the place where the work was considered) did not characterize it as a beautiful fairy tale. She always puzzled readers.

Comment on the work "The Little Prince". Author - P.L. Travers

Among the early reviewers - only Pamela Lyndon Travers, who wrote the famous work "Mary Poppins", which can be called the English equivalent of the story "Little Prince". The review of the book showed that she really understood the scale of the work of de Saint-Exupéry and its significance.

Opinions of children and adults

Many people persist in saying that the "Little Prince" is a children's book. Paying tribute to justice, we note that Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1942, when this work was written, conceived it as a child. It usually looks like a children's book: a wide format, less than a hundred pages of volume, simple sentences, more than 40 illustrations ... The main character, as is often the case in such works, is a child. Most bookstores exhibit this work in the children's section.

However, as practice shows, not many children after reading say that they liked this tale.

Book for adults

"Little Prince", critics' reviews about which remain ambiguous, is really a book for adults. The protagonist is not a young prince, but a pilot, a middle-aged man who tells a fairy tale. The complex interweaving of inner experiences, both psychological (his artistic talent was never realized), and situational (he crashed when landing in the center of the Sahara and can not repair his plane), is central to the work.

The most enchanting episodes of the book are those that can only be understood by an adult reader: Saint-Exupery's satirical jokes about adulthood, his intentionally naive watercolor illustrations and Rousseau's inspired romantic message about the superiority of feeling over reason, the decay of civilization and the pure wisdom of children .. .

The book is more an allegory than an adventure, the "Little Prince" reviews and echoes of Dante's "Divine Comedy" and Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Journey" are vividly heard, where we first meet the hero at a turning point in life, followed by spiritual rebirth, redemption and re-enactment. Charm.

Facts from the life of the author

What was Antoine de Saint-Exupery? "Little Prince" (the reviews confirm this) helps to better understand the writer. Thanks to the biography written by Stacy Schiff, we can learn interesting facts from the author's life. They are reflected in the story "Little Prince" (reviews of his contemporaries are very mixed).

Forced to flee Europe in a difficult monolinguistic exile in North America, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, along with a group of like-minded people, is engaged in a petty but fierce struggle with his adversaries (he was of little opinion about Charles de Gaulle, who, as the writer mistakenly believed , Waged war with his own - with the French, and not with the Germans).

The work was written in Manhattan and Long Island. Forced landing in the desert, depicted in the book "Little Prince" reviews get enthusiastic. The situation is striking in its realism. And this is not surprising, after all, as a pilot, in 1935 Exupery was lost for almost a week in the Arabian desert, which is reflected in memories, visions and thoughts about imminent death and beauty, placed on the pages of the work.

Strong feelings

The love story of Prince and Rose is a reflection of the author's turbulent novel with his wife Consuelo. Rose has some features of a beloved writer: coughing, overbearing and sudden fainting. As Schiff relates in his work, when de Saint-Exupéry was lost in the desert in 1935, Consuelo lamented the loss on her own "asteroid" - at a table in a small Lipp restaurant. Exupery tells the story in a semi-autobiographical manner, starting a story from an anecdote about how, as a child, he had to listen to the urgent calls of intelligent adults to fold colors and colored pencils and do the "thing."

Adapting works

At various times, many attempts were made to adapt the creation of the Little Prince (a review of the book left many artists), his screenings on stage and on the television screen.

The first production appeared in 1963 at the Maturins Theater in Paris. Its author is Raymond Jerome. In 1974, Stanley Donen produced a musical based on this story, in 1981 Hugh Wheeler, Don Black and John Barry tried to make their version on Broadway. Since then, hundreds of stage adaptations of the book have appeared, including school, amateur productions "The Little Prince" (the performance reviews always collects enthusiastic).

The version presented at the Lukinlas Theater is an adaptation of Rick Kummins and John Scowallar. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the French edition of the book "The Little Prince" (essay, reviews see above), Virgil Tanase made a famous adaptation at the Michel Theater in Paris. This version remains the most popular both in France and abroad.

In Moscow, delighted fans of the talent of Exupery Theater "Sphere". "Little Prince" reviews are mostly appreciative.