The Little Prince / Le Petit Prince

I never imagined in a million years that a whimsical child’s fable could make me feel so downhearted. I can understand why this book was listed as one of the greatest classic. To a child, the fantasy about having a fren from outer-space is so appealing – this book has been used for elementary literature all over the world (err… except M’sia which I don’t quite understand why :p) and to an adult like me, the depth within the simplicity of the story is what captivated me the most.

This is a story about a strange encounter, self-narrated by an aviator, whose plane crashes in the middle of the desert. While stranded there, attempting to fix his plane, he stumbled upon a fine-looking, small prince who claimed to be originally from Asteroid B 612 – a planet no bigger than a house.

Slowly, the aviator learned about the simple life of this little prince whose daily routines involved uprooting the baobabs & sweeping up his 3 volcanoes, how he loves watching sunset whenever he’s sad, and most of all how intensely in love he is with the one and only flower in his planet - the rose.

As the story unfolds, the little prince shared the story of his journey, all the memorable encounters he had with adults from other asteroid and finally how he landed on earth. The main theme of this story is how simple life can be if we see it thru the eye of a child and how we tend to complicate things as we grow older.

This book is somewhat like Alice in Wonderland - on a surface, it’s simple & appealing enough to be read by a child but if you really try to comprehend the meaning behind it, it’s mind-blowing how deep the message can be. I won’t be a spoiler by giving it all out to you, you should read it yourself coz you might have a different interpretation of the story as compared to mine. 

But all I can tell you is, be prepared, you might need a tissue as this story has a bittersweet ending. And you’ll be surprised to learn how a simple tale like this can teach you a lot about life.

My fave quotes from this book: "One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye" (On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux).