An Prionsa Beag

September 26, 2023 3:47 AM

Ever read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince? Turns out you are not alone. It has been translated into 500+ different languages and dialects, including Irish - see above. Swiss engineering entrepreneur Jean-Marc Probst has, over the last 40 years, collected most of them, and a mass [N = 9,000+] of ancillary material, into one searchable place. Ten minute overview from lingthusiast imshawn getoffmylawn.
posted by BobTheScientist (12 comments total)

L'immense prince more like!
posted by abucci at 4:39 AM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was late to reading The Little Prince, and I really liked it. So much that I started reading Saint-Exupery's memoir of being a pilot. Which was captivating and brilliant and magical at first until it suddenly became super racist (in a very French way). I had never gone from 100% to 0% enthusiasm for a book so fast.
posted by earthstarvoyager at 4:45 AM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

I had never gone from 100% to 0% enthusiasm for a book so fast.

It is a book of its time (if you are talking about Wind, Sand, and Stars… I think there are several books where memoirs and piloting play role).

He was way ahead for his time and has, at other occasions, demonstrated behavior and thoughts that quite contradict racism and misogyny.

Here is a (IMHO) good summary: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/25/reading-group-wind-sand-stars
posted by uncle harold at 5:42 AM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Well, there's a reason it's The Little Prince (and not Wind, Sand, and Stars) that's been translated more times than any other book except the Bible.

As for me, I like all his books to various degrees. I find I can enjoy a book even if I don't agree with everything in it. Though perhaps in this case it's the person I'm most interested in, and his book are just a window into the soul, or as close as we have.

If you're at all interested in Saint-Exupery, I recommend Stacy Schiff's biography of him. I read it one summer (accompanied with Wind, Sand, and Stars) and found myself, for the rest of the year, hyperaware of every airplane flying overhead, sometimes catching myself stopping to watch them go by.
posted by Flaffigan at 7:41 AM on September 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

Recently honored with a statue in NYC.
posted by the sobsister at 8:36 AM on September 26, 2023

I never read The Little Prince as a child, but when I was picking books to read to my kid at bedtime I figured such a beloved book was an enthusiastic yes. We got part way through on the the first night before she was drifting away. That night I finished reading it myself, and when I reached the part describing how The Little Prince escapes Earth I knew I had to lose that book.
posted by Reverend John at 2:32 PM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is one of those books that people find profound and that I've never really got.
posted by signal at 7:00 PM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Signal, I think it’s a book that has an incredible talent for hitting different audience ages in different ways, allowing it to be shared across families and reread with a new perspective.

As a child (or new French language learner) it can be taken as just a simplistic story about foreign lands, pilots, princes and surprises. I think as a middle and high schooler I found it profound in a “no one understands me” emo-type way. As an adult I’m not sure that I primarily consider it to be profound, but each part of the story resonates deeply with me. Whether it’s a loss of creativity in my adult life, appreciation for different points of view, or learning to deal with arrogant little shits and then realizing they’re people too with their own stories fears and emotions, etc. There’s something for everyone in the book which is what makes it so popular
posted by raccoon409 at 7:30 PM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Somehow I’m most shocked by the fonts that different translations use! The artwork and cover are so iconic to me that I didn’t even consider the title font changing!
posted by raccoon409 at 7:32 PM on September 26, 2023

Signal, I think it’s a book that has an incredible talent for hitting different audience ages in different ways, allowing it to be shared across families and reread with a new perspective … There’s something for everyone in the book which is what makes it so popular

Yes, that's what people have told me. I've read it at different ages, never saw anything in it, tbh. Not meaning too harsh anybody's mellow, this is just one of those things that's Not For Me™, like The Wire or Breaking Bad.
posted by signal at 4:42 AM on September 27, 2023

Marie Louise von Franz's "Puer Aeternus" is a study of "The Little Prince" and other topics. According to her, Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry would get in his plane and fly into the wild blue yonder anytime things would get the least bit heated or emotional.
posted by DJZouke at 5:34 AM on September 27, 2023

I found a pdf and read the story. It was not what I remembered. I first encountered the book in a human development course, and was angry the teacher was wasting our time with it instead of science. I that was about 20 years ago. I started enjoyed it enough today that I'd like to have a copy for my bookshelf.
posted by rebent at 5:05 PM on September 27, 2023