THE LITTLE PRINCE
Antoine de Saint-Exupry
MACMILLAN
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
I was six years old when I spotted a magnificent picture in a book about an ancient forest. The picture showed a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing a wild beast. This is what it looked like:
It said in the book: A boa constrictor swallows its prey whole, without chewing it. After this, it is unable to move and sleeps through the next six months this is needed for digestion.
I thought deeply about the experiences of the forest. Then, with care and a coloured pencil, I succeeded in making my first drawing. Drawing Number One looked like this:
I showed my fine work to the grown-ups, and asked if the drawing scared them. Scared? Why, it is only a hat!
But it was not a hat! It was very clearly a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But the grown-ups need explanations for everything. So, I made another drawing showing the elephant inside the boa constrictor. Drawing Number Two looked like this:
This time, the grown-ups advised me to put away my representations of the boa constrictor, be it from the inside or the outside, and instead spend my time learning geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why at six years of age, I gave up a promising career as an artist, disappointed by the failure of Drawing Number One and Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups find it hard to understand anything on their own, and it is tiring for children to always have to explain things to them.
Hence, I chose a different occupation, and learned to fly airplanes. I flew all over the world and found that geography was very useful to me. I can easily distinguish China from Arizona, and such knowledge is important if you get lost in the dark.
Through the years I have encountered many people of importance and spent a great deal of time among grown-ups. However, knowing them closely hasnt much improved my opinion of them. Whenever I felt I met someone sensible, I experimented by showing him or her my Drawing Number One, which I always carried with me. But, no matter who it was, the answer would always be, It is a hat.
There would end any talk about boa constrictors, or ancient forests, or the stars. I would lower myself to their level and prattle about bridges, and golf, politics, and neckties. Oh how it pleased the grown-ups to have met such a logical man.
CHAPTER 2
So I lived by myself, with no one to talk to, till six years ago, my plane came down in the Sahara Desert with a broken engine. Without a mechanic or any passengers, I ventured to perform the difficult repairs on my own. It was a matter of life and death there wasnt enough drinking water to last a week.
Miles away from civilization, I spent my first night on the sand, more lost than a castaway in the middle of a vast ocean. So imagine my astonishment when a strange voice woke me the next morning.
It said: Please could you draw me a sheep!
What!
Draw me a sheep!
Utterly startled, I sprang up. Blinking hard, I surveyed the area around myself cautiously. There stood an incredibly small person studying me intently. This is the best portrait I could manage from memory. But the actual person was far more fascinating.
The fault is not mine. Discouraged from becoming a painter when I was six years old, I only know how to draw boas from the inside and from the outside.
Now this sudden vision made my eyes fall out of my head in disbelief. As you are aware, I had crash-landed in the desert many miles from any habitation. Yet this fellow seemed neither weary nor astray; he wasnt even fainting from hunger or thirst or fear. He did not look like a child lost in the middle of the desert, far away from any living thing. When I finally found I could speak, I asked him, What are you doing here?
Please could you draw me a sheep? he repeated slowly, with care, as if this was a matter of great importance.
So compelling was the situation that I could not disobey. Even though I was far removed from civilization and worried for my life, I took out of my pocket a sheet of paper and my fountain pen. Then it struck me that my studies had been centred around geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar, and I told the little man (with some irritation) that I did not know how to draw.
He answered, No matter. Draw me a sheep.
But I had no experience of drawing a sheep. So I drew for him the thing I so frequently drew the boa constrictor from the outside. And I was surprised to hear, No, no, no! I do not want a boa constrictor with an elephant in its stomach. A boa constrictor is very dangerous and an elephant too bulky. Everything is very small where I come from. A sheep will be more suitable. Draw me a sheep.
So I made this drawing:
He looked at it carefully and said, This wont do. The sheep looks ill. Draw me another.
I made another drawing:
My friend smiled kindly. See for yourself, he said. It is a ram with horns, not a sheep.
So I made a third drawing:
It looks ancient! he exclaimed. I want a sheep that will live for a very long time.
I was exhausted, and impatient to start working on the crippled engine. So I quickly drew this:
Your sheep is inside this box, I explained.
I was pleasantly surprised to see his face light up. That is just what I wanted! Do you think this sheep will need plenty of grass?
Why?
Because my world is very small.
Of course there will be enough grass, I said. It is a tiny sheep.
He bent over the drawing and looked closely. Not too tiny oh look! He has gone to sleep.
And that is how I first met the little prince.
CHAPTER 3
It was a long time before I could learn anything about the world he came from. The little prince asked me question after question, but never seemed to hear mine. It was from carelessly dropped words that I gradually constructed the tale.
When he noticed my plane for the first time, for instance (no, I shall not draw it; it is too complicated), he asked me, What is that thing?
That is not a thing. It can fly. It is a plane. It is my airplane.
I was quite proud to have him know that I was a pilot and could fly the plane.
He cried out, Oh my! So you dropped out of the sky?
Yes, I answered, humbly.
That is so funny!
