Passages from the book: 

 

Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: “What does his voice sound like?” “What games does he like best?” “Does he collect butterflies?”. They ask: “How old is he?” “How many brothers does he have?” “How much does he weigh?” “How much money does his father make?” Only then do they think they know him.

 

If you tell grown-ups, “I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves on the roof…,” they won”t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, “I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.” Then they exclaim, “What a pretty house!”

 

“I”d like to see a sunset… Do me a favour your majesty… Command the sun to set.”

“If I commanded a general to fly from one flower to the next like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy, or to turn into a seagull and if the general did not carry out my command, which of us would be in the wrong, the general or me?”

 

“You would be,” said the little prince quite firmly.

 

“Exactly. One must command from each what each can perform,” the king went on. “Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump in the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable.”

 

“Then my sunset?” insisted the little prince, who never let go of a question once he had asked it.

 

“You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait, according to my science of government, until conditions are favourable.”

 

“And when will that be?” inquired the little prince.

 

“Well, well!” replied the king, first consulting a large calendar. “Well, well! That would be around… around… that would be tonight around seven-forty! And you”ll see how well I”m obeyed.”

 

For me, this is the loveliest and the saddest landscape in the world. It”s the same landscape as the one on the preceding page, but I”ve drawn it one more time to be sure you see it clearly. It”s here that the little prince appeared on Earth, then disappeared.

 

Look at this landscape carefully to be sure of recognizing it, if you should travel to Africa someday, in the desert. And if you happen to pass by here, I beg you not to hurry past. Wait a little while, just under the star! Then if a child comes to you, and if he laughs, if he has golden hair, if he doesn”t answer your questions, you”ll know who he is. If this should happen, be kind! Don”t let me go on being so sad: Send word immediately that he”s come back…

 

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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a well-known French writer and the pioneer of aviation. He was born in Lyon, France, in 1900. Flying was his passion, during the flight he used to meditate and it was more of a time for reflection. While in the air, he would often think deeply about solitude, friendship, the meaning of life, the human condition and liberty. It is then he decided to publish his reflections into a book. His novel ’The Little Prince’ is, in part, autobiographical and belongs to the category of fantasy literature, that is expressed in Voltaire’s ’Candide’ as well. On July 31, 1944, Saint Exupéry left for his last mission. His plane was destroyed by the Germans over the Mediterranean.

 

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Some of the themes used in the novel:

-Narrow-mindedness and its losses: In the opening pages, he shows how differently adults and children view the world. In his eyes grown-ups are dull, superficial, unimaginative and have limited perspectives. The children, on the contrary, are imaginative and sensitive to the mystery and beauty of the world.

 

-Enlightenment through exploration is important for him. Spiritual growth for him involves active exploration of the world around us.

 

-Relationships Teach Responsibilities. The story of the prince and the rose is associated with the relationship between a man and a woman. The sense of responsibility towards the other is the source of love. Giving is more important than thinking what the other person is offering.

 

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Motifs in the form of secrecy - the fox’s statement that “Anything essential is invisible to the eye’’. The Snake’s riddles and hints and narrator’s drawings also are the beliefs that everything cannot be explained in mere words. Through imaginations we go back to the lost innocence of our youth. Taming, the fox explains, means ’’creating ties’’ with others. It is important to observe certain rites and rituals to remain well-connected to the world around us.

 

Symbols like Stars, Desert, and Water describe the association of man’s navigating through the mysteries of the outer space. It symbolises the absence of the Prince and the loneliness of the narrator. The desert represents the narrator’s mind. It seeks more experience and guidance from others for transformation through learning. In the end, the drinking water indicates the spiritual fulfilment.

 

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The major characters:

The Little Prince: He is pure and natural, curious to know everything. He symbolizes hope, love and a child’s innocence. At times he becomes a student as well as a teacher. What he learns from the wise fox, he passes it on to the narrator. He is thirsty for answers, always searching for something.

 

The Narrator: He learns from the fox that we must explore our surroundings for personal growth which cannot be learnt from books or other’s teachings. The only difference between the two characters is that the narrator is a human being who grows with time and the prince is mystical and superficial figure.

 

The Rose: Rose’s nature is another symbolic character. She is proud becoz of which the prince deserts her. It is said that the author here relates his own life with that of the prince and the rose. Hence, the question of true love, sharing, importance comes from his personal life.

 

The Fox: The lessons of taming, that the fox teaches, sounds to be the sole purpose of the character. The fox makes the prince understand why his rose is so important to him. It displays an ideal type of friendship as the departure of the prince is painful for his friend - nevertheless the fox still encourages the prince to act in his own best interest.

 

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“If I try here to describe it, it is in order not to forget it. It is sad to forget a friend. Everyone did not have a friend.” By Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince).

 

As told by the author

Six years ago (the   current date is never specified), my plane crashed in the Sahara desert. The question of life and death prepared me to try to succeed, though; I hardly had food and water to survive. My ordeal continued for eight days. I was waiting for the worst of time ahead but the so-called nightmare magically turned out to be a beautiful dream which i have painted in the form of a book called ’The Little Prince’.(written in 1942).

 

The first evening, I thus fell asleep on sand completely isolated. But to my surprise a funny voice awoke me. I jumped on my feet in astonishment and saw a little child. As he asked me to draw a sheep, I made and re-made 4 sheep, yet he was unsatisfied. Than i drew a case and showed it to him saying: The sheep that you want is inside. And I was quite surprised to see the illuminated face of my young judge.

 

This is how this Little Prince became the central character of my dream and my friend too. I learnt from him that he comes from a small planet as he calls it Asteroid 325. He took great care of the planet. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet. He fell in love with it instantly. One day he caught the rose in a lie, so he leaves the planet as he could not trust her anymore. He decided to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.

 

The journey begins with the first six planets he visits. He meets all different kinds of characters like a king, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer. All of whom are self-centred and their strange behaviour perturbs him. He only admired the faithfulness of lamplighter. He does not learn anything useful from others. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever. This made him miss the rose he has left behind. The geographer suggests him to visit the planet Earth.

 

Here he meets a snake and a fox. The wise fox teaches him what is more important in life. The knowledge that fox instils in his heart makes a strong impact in taking decisions.

 

I realised that it’s our eighth day in the desert. We together shared a moment of bliss agreeing that too many people do not see what is truly important in life. However, his mind is fixed on returning to his rose. Therefore, he begins to make plans with the snake. I too, by that time fixed my plane. We both were sad to depart. The snake bites the prince, who falls noiselessly on the sand.

 

Next day when i didn’t find my Little Prince’s body, I was confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. I could hear the tinkling of my friend’s laughter in the stars, which seem to be comforting me. Often, I wonder if the sheep I drew has eaten the prince’s rose. I conclude my ordeal here with the request to all of you to stop for a while under the stars. If you ever see my Little Precious Star, do let me know immediately if the little prince has returned.

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Read this book please! it”s truly a great book…

 

 

Passages from the book:

“The difference between a person and an Angel is easy. Most of a person is on the outside and most of an Angel is on the inside . ”

 

Mum reckoned that getting lost and finding your way were just different sides of the same coin. You couldn't have one without the other. ~ Flynn, Mister God, This Is Anna

 

“Flynn, do you know that lived backward is devil?”  ~ Anna

 

"God might have made a big mirror, perhaps we're on the other side, and perhaps we're the wrong way around. Yeah that's why we get it all wrong." ~Anna

 

"Mister God can know things and people from the inside too. We only know them from the outside, don't we?" ~Anna

 

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One of my most treasured books! not in a million Sundays will I ever part wid it! My friend Udaybhaskar had given it to me in 1984. I still have it. I haven’t thanked him enough for having given me this wonderful book and introduced me to the joys of reading! Thanks UB, wherever you are! God Bless!

 

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This is a beautiful book. It is about a little girl called Anna and an adult called Flynn.

 

Flynn finds Anna when she is bedraggled and uncared for and he takes her home to his Mum’s house. The description of his mother is amazing!!

 

The story is about how Anna see’s the world and how this affects the people around her.

 

It has a sad ending and if you truly have a heart then you'd be moved to tears. It is one of those books that touches you somewhere deep inside and never really leaves you. It reawakens you to the wonder of the world - both the bad and the good bits.

 

I had 2 copies of this book, one that UB gave me and the other I bought coz I knew my friends would borrow it. Over the years I have bought 7 copies of this book, people have borrowed it but never returned it. I am not sure if this is because once read it, it’s the sort of book that you wish to return to at times if only to centre yourself with the world again.

 

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have their eyes opened just a wee bit at a time to the wonderful world of relationships and beauty of living, loving and giving.

 

 

Ask a healthy sampling of women under 100 about Nancy Drew and chances are they will remember three things: the girl detective’s titian hair, her chums Bess and George, and her blue roadster.. Some might even remember Ned, Nancy's faithful boyfriend.

 

RIVER HEIGHTS, fancy frocks and a gleaming blue roadster — the very words conjure up images of days gone by, when Nancy Drew zipped around town catching crooks and thrilling young readers with her adventures.

 

The totemic automobile made its debut in the first sentence of the first Nancy Drew mystery, “The Secret of the Old Clock.” In the years - and books, films, television shows and computer games - that ensued, it morphed into a blue convertible, a red Mustang and a blue hybrid. Now the roadster is back, as blue and distinctive as ever, in “Nancy Drew,” which Warner Brothers released sometime in June 2007.

 

The car’s the same; it’s the meaning behind it that’s changed.

 

I'm sure it’s hard to remember now, but when Nancy Drew was dreamed up in 1930, very few women could even drive, much less girls Nancy's age. Her roadster represented ultimate freedom and independence for women and girls of her time!

 

Even Nancy’s age depended on the car. When the books were first published, Nancy was 16, just old enough to drive, but still young enough for pre-teens to identify with.

 

With her roadster, Nancy could go where she liked, when she liked; she didn’t need anyone’s help. I believe Nancy Drew was a feminist character before feminism existed! She didn’t care about what the boys were doing, she didn’t worry about being popular, and she as hell didn’t worry about what anybody thought of her.

 

Of course, the old Nancy didn’t need to. Like any teen’s dream, she was popular without trying. Aside from the villains — admittedly fond of knocking her out, tying her up and locking her in closets — the whole world was on Nancy’s side. All the people in her Middle American hometown of River Heights, from servants and storekeepers to Police Chief McGinnis and her own father, the distinguished criminal lawyer Carson Drew, fell all over themselves to help the “slim and attractive” socialite solve her mysteries.

 

Nancy Drew - the original - was the brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer, a successful book packager who commissioned the journalist Mildred Wirt, later Mildred Wirt Benson, to write the first three novels in the series.  After he died in 1930, his daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams took over, collaborating with Benson until 1953. All 56 books in the original series, which continued until 1979, were published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Keene, now the pseudonym for other writers, continues to turn out new Nancy Drews. Altogether, I believe that the books have sold more than 80 million copies in 25 languages.

 

More than 75 years later, Nancy’s still at it, solving fictitious crimes and winning fans from college campuses to the Senate floor. Now, one can buy Nancy Drew pajamas, video games and manga comic books, too. The titian-haired sleuth drives a hybrid and chats by cell phone in the newest mysteries — and she hits the silver screen in a new movie called, simply, “Nancy Drew”… I hope I get around to seeing it. 

 

I loved reading these books shadowy scenes crisscrossed with flashlight beams, the requisite hidden passageways, false-bottom boxes and exotic antiques riddle the set. Nancy’s boyfriend, Ned, follows her around wistfully, but, as ever, Nancy is more interested in adventure than love.

 

While the villains she battles have been updated a bit over the years - the earliest novels drew heavily on racial and ethnic stereotypes — their character remains the same: cartoon-like; menacing; not so evil that the reader has to question the essential goodness of human nature, but bad enough to cast Nancy in a heroic light.

 

Today’s audience / readers may see as much of a resemblance to Hermione Granger, Harry Potter’s straight-A sidekick, or Willow, the geeky witch in the “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” television series, as they do to the well-bred Nancy Drew of the early books. The old Nancy would as soon have let her slip show as her competitive drive.

 

Nancy, after all, never was a rebel. In her earliest incarnation her heroics were at the service of preserving the status quo: keeping a gently reared family’s inheritance from the grasp of their nouveau-riche relations, or foiling coarse, low-born thieves. The new Nancy continues the tradition - as, for example, when she politely puts the obligatory mean girl in her place - though the landscape of class and sexual politics has changed since the 1930s, transforming the genteel spinsters Nancy used to champion into hard-working single moms.

 

The novels handled Nancy’s femininity with a clever and evocative device: giving her two exaggerated female shadows, her girlfriends Bess and George. Blond, plump Bess enjoyed shopping for clothes and could never resist just one more of Hannah Gruen’s home-baked treats, while George, an athletic brunette, had a tomboy’s impatience for all things girlish.

 

With Bess at one elbow, squealing at the first hint of danger, and George at the other, lacking social subtlety, Nancy seemed, by contrast, the perfect medium between yin and yang.

 

When I was in my teens, Nancy Drew - was my icon and I'm sure she was for many other girls growing up everywhere - whose appeal crosses generations and built connections.

 

I was completely addicted to them. I got them from my library, and I read every single one. I wished that I was Nancy Drew. She is an independent, smart young person who had the perfect life — a caring, generous father who gave her a lot of freedom, a housekeeper who didn’t demand much of Nancy except that she show up for the ‘yummy’ meals that were cooked for her, good friends and lots of adventures

 

Like everyone else, I stayed up late, reading by flashlight. There was just enough scary adventure to keep one turning the pages far into the night when you were supposed to be asleep. I am sure that on some level, Nancy’s reliance on her intelligence, her determination and fighting spirit were sources of inspiration for all of us. Twenty years ago, there just weren’t enough of those kinds of young girls in fiction.