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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 843.912 EAN: 9780152048044 Edition: 60 Anv ISBN: 0152048049 Label: Harcourt Children's Books Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 96 Publication Date: April 01, 2003 Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books Reading Level: Ages 9-12 Studio: Harcourt Children's Books Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. More than a half century later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power. The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. "In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey," the narrator recalls. "Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket." And so begins their dialogue, which stretches the narrator's imagination in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions. The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It's a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy as Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. And despite his tone of gentle bemusement, Saint-Exupéry pulls off some fine satiric touches, too. There's the king, for example, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-man (or one-boy) judiciary: I have good reason to believe that there is an old rat living somewhere on my planet. I hear him at night. You could judge that old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. That way his life will depend on your justice. But you'll pardon him each time for economy's sake. There's only one rat.The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence. Yet his tale is ultimately a tender one--a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, which never turns into Peter Pan-style treacle. Such delicacy of tone can present real headaches for a translator, and in her 1943 translation, Katherine Woods sometimes wandered off the mark, giving the text a slightly wooden or didactic accent. Happily, Richard Howard (who did a fine nip-and-tuck job on Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma in 1999) has streamlined and simplified to wonderful effect. The result is a new and improved version of an indestructible classic, which also restores the original artwork to full color. "Trying to be witty," we're told at one point, "leads to lying, more or less." But Saint-Exupéry's drawings offer a handy rebuttal: they're fresh, funny, and like the book itself, rigorously truthful. --James Marcus Product Description: Since 1943, the wise little boy from Asteroid B-612 has led children and their adults to deeper understandings of love, friendship, and responsibility. The Little Prince is a cherished story, read by millions of people in more than a hundred languages. In honor of its sixtieth anniversary, Harcourt is proud to present this special edition of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s treasure, which includes a satin bookmark and presentation page, and comes in an elegant cloth slipcase enhanced with gold stamping and embossing. A must-have edition for any collector, this lovely book is also the perfect gift for those new to the wisdom of the Little Prince and the charms of his rose-and-star-filled worlds. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The Little PrinceI ordered four copies, one came with alot of print written in it and highlighting. Was supposed to be in excellent state and I couldn't track who sent it. Wonderful story, but the poor state of the book detracted from me giving it as a gift...I rate the story as a 5+ but the book you sent a 1. So give it a 3 overall. Rating:  - Man, I love this book ...And I love how I ordered it on a Friday and it arrived the following Monday! I feel very satisfied with the price and promptness of my order. I just hope my nephew is satisfied with receiving a book for his 9th birthday... Rating: - one of my favoritesthis is one of my favorite stories. I read it as a child and enjoyed it, re-read it as a teenager and understood more of the symbolism, then as an adult, of course, understood even more of the meaning. Everyone could get something from this story. Rating: - Funny and moving at the same timeThe two main characters in the book have one thing in common, and that is they both don't like grown-ups (this despite one of the characters being a grown-up). In the book, the narrator's plane crashes in the middle of the desert, and he meets a little boy from another planet. In this particular universe, all the planets (including the little prince's) are inhabited by one person, except Earth (in which there are many people). The little prince's planet is so small, that the prince can go in a different ... Read More Rating: - WonderfulAh, the amount of philosophy and beauty and imagination you can cram into a story this short! I have never read the original French version, but the English translation is as powerful as I could hope for, a surreal story of fantasy that speaks such eternal truths of love and life and the sheer faith of childhood. We have a man who has put aside his childhood dreams to grow up. His plane crashes in the desert, and it is here he meets a young prince from a distant asteroid. As we ... Read More |
