Saturday, July 07, 2007

Saint Exupéry


Even if you know nothing about French Culture, you may have heard of Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900 - 1944) for he wrote a book that is worldwide famous: Le Petit Prince (the Little Prince). But before writing books he was one of the pioneers of international postal flight. He died during the war, trying to collect data on German troop movements in the Rhone River Valley. In 1998, fishermen found his ID bracelet, then parts of his plane were pulled out the ocean in 2000. I found this bust by sheer coincidence by the Invalides and I am ashamed to say that I never read anything by him... yet! I wish you a happy 7/7/7!
Discuss French Literature and many other topics in the PDP forum.

20 comments:

  1. Happy 7-7-07 to you, too, Eric!

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  2. You never read St. Exupery?!!! Oh, you gotta catch up, Eric!! Le Petit Prince reads really fast and is a very cute story (well, it's much more than that, actually), but he's also written some very cool stories about his flying adventures. I didn't know he had a bust near the Invalides, though.

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  3. I read the book...easy reading...I've seen several versions of the play and the musical. Interesting but a little hard to follow at times. Saw a special on Dalida on TV5. She was such a talent. No wonder they made the Expo of her memorabilia at the Hotel de Ville.

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  4. Hi Eric, just currious, Why you put special attention on 7/7/7 ?
    What will you do tomorrow at this special day 7/7/7 ?
    Me and my family will enjoy pool party with mechoui. Wanna join ?

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  5. I sat near here but didn't realise who the bust of - looks like a beautiful day

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  6. the little Prince is a wonderful book. I liked it as child and reading it again as adult i still find something wise and interesting in it.

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  7. Give yourself a treat and read "The Little Prince."

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  8. I thought his plane was found near the coast of Marseille. What could that have to do with the Rhone? Also, he wrote Le Petit Prince on an estate he rented on Long Island here in New York State during the middle of the war. And he sent his dirty laundry home to his mother to wash. What a guy!

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  9. A marvelous book that certainly stands the test of time. I always liked Saint Exupery's illustrations, too.

    What do grownups know anyway? The essential in life is unseen...or something like that claims the little fellow who lives on an asteroid. ;-)

    BTW Eric, a curious connect for your 7/7/7 is the seventh planet in "Le Petit Prince" which happens to be...Earth. Now go figure.

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  10. The Little Prince is an amazingly beautiful book. I re-read it every year or two, and it still makes me cry--in a good way--every time.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly...that which is essential is invisible to the eye."

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  11. Also, for any people who have read the English version and are learning/would like to learn french, can I recommend re-reading the French version? Both for the sense of achievement (I can read a French book!) and the beauty of the language in the original.

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  12. This year, for her first birthday, I bought my niece a copy of 'The Little Prince'. She's obviously far too young to read it, I know, but life (and death) are unpredictable, so it seems foolhardy - at least, it does to me - to wait until she can, as I may not be around to give it to her on one of her future birthdays. In any case, having done so, I can now rest assured that she will tackle it long before the age of twenty - which is when I was first introduced to the surreal and mystical imagination of Saint-Exupéry.

    Like 'Alice in Wonderland' - which, as it happens, I have just re-read for the umpteenth time - 'The Little Prince' is a book that, should I live to be a hundred, will hopefully never fully reveal itself it to me, as I fear this would instantaneously deprive it of its paradoxical charm - which, like all the best fairy tales, is a fifty-fifty concoction of perversity and naivety. As Roger Cardinal once explained, a good surrealist 'typically postulates bewilderment as a precondition of insight...[and]...distrusts any revelation which lacks a complimentary aura of enigma: the naked truth cannot be embraced without its veils.'

    Now, I'm not claiming that Saint-Exupéry ever thought of himself as an adherent of Surrealism (although he was certainly of the right age, and living in the right country, to be aware of, and even susceptible to, the influence of this seminal twentieth century movement). All I'm suggesting is that what seduces most us about his enchanting, but often esoteric, words and images is that we know their seductions are unlikely to result in a one night stand.

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  13. Yes, a nice 7/7/7 to everybody! ... with an additional and special reference to the 7th arrondissement!

    Anybody who has not read the Little Prince, must immedediately go and buy it!

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  14. I remember reading The Little Prince in one of my high school French classes. It is so much more than a children's book. I haven't read it as an "adult" but maybe I should remedy that before school starts. :)

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  15. Ah, ce cher Antoine! I read the Petit Prince long ago.... but nothing else. Shame on me too :-))

    Have a great 7/7/7.

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  16. The Little Prince has brought back so many memories. I first read it in high school, but not in French. I was not worldly enough to have taken a language, not wise enough to know there was life after school.
    We passed the book around as though it were the Holy Grail. My friend and I were art majors in high school until she left school at the age of 15/16 to have a baby and a marriage and more babies. She did a watercolor which still hangs on my wall with a quote from The Little Prince; "...it is such a secret place the land of tears" I have wondered about the choice of that quote. Many memories in a photograph of a bust of Antoine de Saint Exupery. I am thankful that I added the book to my library several years ago, maybe it is time for another read.

    Thank you once again Eric for your art, you inspire!

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  17. Eric are you sure you are really French? Never read Saint Exupéry? There must be a law against that in France!

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  19. I still have a "new" 50 Franc note honoring Antoine Saint Exupéry stuck in my copy of Le Petit Prince. If you've never seen the 50FF note, click to see the front of the note, and the back.

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  20. Dear Eric, did you know that The Little Prince was based on La Antigua Guatemala and Lake Atitlán. Also, Antoine de Saint Exupery was married to a Salvadoran woman (Central America) and they lived in Guatemala for a while.

    Check this comments: 1, 2

    I've been meaning to do an entry on that, but I haven't got around to it. Maybe this is a good a excuse to do it.

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