Stéphane Garnier - How to Live Like the Little Prince

First published in the United States of America in 2022 by Chronicle Books LLC.

Originally published in France in 2021 by by ditions de lOpportun as Agir et penser comme Le Petit Prince.

English translation 2022 by Stphane Garnier.

Agir et penser comme Le Petit Prince 2021 by ditions de lOpportun.

Le Petit Prince 2021 by Succession Antoine de Saint-Exupry.

Published by special arrangement with Les ditions de lOpportun in conjunction with their duly appointed agent 2 Seas Literary Agency.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-7972-1573-0

eISBN 978-1-7972-1574-7

English translation by Rebecca Leffler.

Design by Brooke Johnson.

Typesetting by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama.

Typeset in Arno Pro, Brandon, and Rossanova Pro.

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To Galou and Sanou,
dear Little Princes.

How to

To... you.

Because giving a book is an act of love.

This book is yours.

This book is perhaps an opportunity to deliver a message or to give a gift to someone you love. A personal message is worth much more than an authors dedication.

I dedicate this book to:

many studies have insisted on reading between the lines of The Little Prince. A desire to decode certain symbols, or to search for hidden meanings that Antoine de Saint-Exupry slipped into his book makes sense, but that manner of reading The Little Prince is a very different approach from mine.

I wanted to focus on the Little Prince himself, on his words, his doubts, his quest, the values and dreams he holds dear, and the ideas he shares.

What is essential in a book is not only what the author wanted us to understand, but also what we want to understand. The Little Prince exemplifies a way of approaching life that is much different from that of most people. I wanted to focus on the character of the Little Prince, to figure out his motivations and the driving forces of his life, to discover how this little man, this magician, has had such an influence on so many of us, at one time or another in our lives, whatever our age, culture, or language, and has moved, touched, fascinated us, and made us dream.

Finally, while rereading the book, something I had not done for a long time, I ended up adopting his thoughts, then adapting them to my life, which I am now sharing with you in this book.

In what way are we all a part of this Little Prince?

Before you begin reading this book...

Write down all the dreams, desires, and hopes you had as a child when you were thinking about your future life.

Be honest and think back to the most sincere wish you made at the time. Simply remember what you wanted most for yourself in the past, even if it seems far-fetched to you today!

All grown-ups were once children... but only a few of them remember it.

the aviator

when did i first read The Little Prince? I dont remember.

Like everyone else, I knew I had read it. But what did I remember about it as time passed by? When did I first understand what it really wanted to tell me? And what lessons did I learn from it in the years that followed?

Oh, to go back to that first time...

The time before I grew up. Before I became a rationalist. Before I stepped into the world of grown-ups, the world that I was told was reality. The first time... before I forgot.

Once upon a time, there was the Little Prince. Even if Antoine de Saint-Exupry never wanted to begin the book with those words, to add Once upon a time to the story is to give it back some of its magic, and to give back some of the dreams that we all had as children. And to still believe that magic really exists.

The Little Prince is much more than just a bookit is a worldwide phenomenon, having been translated into three hundred languages and dialects. Yet setting its success aside, the story of the Little Prince remains a part of us. It is a story that began during our childhood and continues to take shape over the years. The Little Prince is a part of ourselves that we have sometimes decided to push back as far as possible from our existence as time passed by, in order to follow the path of adulthood with great strides wherever the opportunity arose. This path, the road to becoming an adult, becomes more and more difficult to deviate from as we grow up.

In the beginning, as we took our first steps in childhood, the path ahead was lined with trees, flowers, birds, and fields. Then, as we grew older and moved forward on this path, small walls began to line the edges, then farther on down the road, a few hedges grew taller and taller.

This path toward adulthood had to be followed. It became impossible to turn around, impossible to deviate from it, impossible to turn back at any moment. We had to continue straight on ahead.

Soon, a few barriers and fences made of wood began to sprout up at the edge of the road; then the first walls were built, stone after stone, covered with ivy, then brick after brick, higher and higher. So high, that after a certain hour the sun was blocked from shining down on us to warm us up. And as the walls rose, shadows formed, growing bigger and bigger, projected against the faades.

The more we continued to move forward, without any other choice, the more we moved away from the stories and the magic that defined our childhood world. Everything became conventional, calculated, Cartesian, logical, concrete, palpable, and demonstrable. Everything had to make sense on paper, with boxes that needed to be checked off. Saint Thomass philosophy of believing only what he could see with his own eyes began to take pride of place as we entered adulthood. The magic was over.