Discovering the Hidden Wisdom of The Little Prince: In Search of Saint-Exupéry's Lost Child

The Little Prince is neither a children’s story nor a philosophical tale, although it does borrow its traditional structure from the fairy tale, and it is even less of a “metaphysical treatise,” as some have called it.

BETWEEN HIS DEPARTURE FROM Argentina and his mobilization on September 4, 1939, almost ten years passed that seemed to constitute a kind of erratic waiting period for Saint-Exupéry. In his professional and literary lives as well as in his personal life, he seemed to be trying his hand at a great number of things, starting out on paths but never pur

Despite the success of Southern Mail, and especially of Night Flight, awarded the Femina Prize in France, he would wait until 1939—almost ten years later—to publish Wind, Sand and Stars. It should also be noted that this new book, which he struggled painfully to deliver under pressure from his American editors, was comprised mostly of a collection

Moreover, a fox—an animal associated with flattery, lies, malice, and cunning—is a strange choice for one who delivers a message of truth and seeks to cultivate the friendship of the little prince, who up until then hadn’t met anyone on Earth except a snake and some roses. It seems the fox was cast against type. Why did the author make this choice?

At one point, there was a possibility that the book might be illustrated by the painter Bernard Lamotte, but very quickly Antoine understood the necessity of doing the illustrations himself. As the manuscript shows, he viewed them as having the utmost importance and wanted to be the one to arrange the text and the images. Thus, in a letter to his e