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The Little Prince
Antoine De Saint Exupéry

Antoine De Saint Exupéry was a French airman killed in action one year after this book was published in 1944. The Little Prince is a book for children and adults alike. By way of introduction, Saint Exupéry describes a picture he carries around with him of a boa constrictor eating an elephant and how adults who see the world through adult eyes, are blind to what the picture really is. They see only a picture of a hat.

The book contains a simple story, simply told of how, in our adult lives at least, we live seeing only what we are able to see.

 It tells the tale of an airman who makes a  forced landing in a desert where he meets the Little Prince of the title. The Little Prince has also fallen from the sky, but this time from another planet. The story follows the prince and narrator as they journey around the planets meeting a procession of people who see their worlds their way. We for example meet the conceited man, the king, the accountant, the drunkard, the geographer and the lamplighter, each serves as a parable for adult thinking and seeing.

It’’s a simple, poignant, thought provoking and insightful book that everyone should read as a child, to share how you see the world, and far more importantly as an adult to understand how much you have lost and how blind you have become, and perhaps how you might reopen your eyes.

An absolute must-read and far better use of a couple of hours than any meeting or keyboard bashing session.

Steve Unwin
May 2009

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