The Little Prince

While this is actually my first time reading it, I have two very sentimental memories attached to The Little Prince. The first is a hazy childhood memory of an animated version which I haven't yet tracked down. The other - and the most special - is from high school; I vividly remember sitting in the auditorium during a lunch break with my dear friend, Wendi, as she read a good chunk of it to me in French. Of course I didn't understand any of it, but between Wendi's expressive delivery and the charming illustrations, it was kind of magical.

I reget to say that the experience of reading it finally in English wasn't quite as magical, but that is my own fault (and I haven't deducted stars for it).

I STRONGLY recommend avoiding this cheap Wordsworth edition. I usually love these, but it doesn't do any justice to the illustrations. In fact some of them were horrifingly distorted; they're converted to black-and-white and are very low fidelity. It's not fun, don't do it.

After sampling some of the audio versions, I also suspect there are better translations out there too.

But, as for the story itself, it was charming and sweet, with a little whistful sadness, but it didn't quite feel as deep as I was expecting. It was quite light, and there were several moments where I thought it was going to plumb some further philosophical depths, but it just kind of moved onto the next thing. This isn't a criticism - I enjoyed how it would introduce themes and then let them be. It made for a delightful and digestible read.

It's clear why The Little Prince has captured imaginations the world over, but please do yourself a favor and get a copy in full-color with a good translation. Or even better, if possible, have one of your favorite people read it to you in French.