The Little Prince
By: Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Richard Howard - translator / Narrated By: Humphrey Bower
Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
And how do we live again after such enchantment?
First off, Humphrey Bower, tho’ Australian, does a fabulous job with the narration. He captures innocence, he captures the ossified adult nature, he captures charm, he captures disgust, all so very well. I dunno if he’s going for British tones, but his accent is a tad uneven every now and then. But it in no WAY detracts from the magnificence of the heartfelt story.
And to say that Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s monumental The Little Prince had a great effect upon my life would be a complete understatement. Or perhaps “scarred” is more like it. But I use scarred in the best sense of the word, rather how the pilot in the story is scarred after meeting the little prince. How do you live again after being so incredibly blessed as to love?
To me, the story, tho’ scathing here (A planet inhabited only by a greedy man), and a trifle disturbing there (A planet inhabited only by an alcoholic. Jarring to see a hard drinker in a children’s story, but I guess children are vastly aware of the sordid) is very much a story about love. And responsibility. THAT’S what kills me. It’s the Fox telling the little prince that you are forever responsible for that which you’ve tamed. And there is pain in the parting.
All this is doled out in small portions as the boy relates his story to the pilot. The pilot, whose plane is damaged and needs to be fixed, who also has only eight days of water to last him as he and the boy have their exchanges in this barren desert, is a grown man who felt he had to put away the child-like imagination early on in his youth. Grown ups just didn’t understand. But the prince sees with his heart of a child even as the pilot tries, and fails, to make drawings for him, drawings to enhance the prince’s life on his own little planet. There’s the sheep to eat the baobabs as they are only sprouts, before the baobabs can grow catastrophically large. The pilot attempts then falters then finally draws a box, saying the sheep is in the box. And the little prince sees that this is indeed so.
As the pilot struggles to fix his plane and get back to civilization before his water runs out, the prince tells him of how he got to be in that desert. Of how his love for a vain rose, with her demanding and melodramatic ways, made him leave her, seeking to save himself. Of how on his journey he happened upon planet upon planet with only the very worst that mankind can grow up to be as the entire population. Saint-Exupery’s eye for that which is disgusting in man’s nature is played up with a remarkably keen eye then discarded as the prince goes on to meet the next deplorable person in his path.
Once on the earth, he happens upon a rose garden where he, much to his dismay and disgust, discovers that his beautiful rose is actually quite common. Why, there are thousands of roses here; they’re nothing special. And then he happens upon the Fox, a wild creature who demands to be tamed before he can play with the boy. He promises his love and affection, his unwavering devotion, and that’s where the book KILLS me. If you’ve ever opened your heart to another being, say a homeless and feral and fearful animal, you know that responsibility is huuuuge! And there will ALWAYS be a parting, and the Fox makes it quite clear that his own heart will break.
But the Fox also teaches the prince that the most important things in life cannot be seen with the eye but only with the heart. That time given is what matters. The time and effort the boy put into caring for his rose made her special, made her different from the countless other roses. Love makes everything special, everything unique.
And is it worth the pain? Dunno. The pilot, who has to go on living after his encounter with the boy meets its sad yet inevitable conclusion, sure wonders. He has been given the laughter of stars to listen to when he thinks of the prince; he has been given the very stars themselves.
But he’d settle, in a heartbeat, for the boy.
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