Little Prince
Meet the original Boy Who Fell to Earth. Stranded in the Sahara Desert, an aircraft pilot meets a strange little boy who tells him of his journey from another world.
The Little Prince, by the French writer, illustrator, and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was written and published during the Second World War, to immediate acclaim, and its classic status has been embraced ever since. Whether as a children’s fairy tale or an existentialist fable, religious parable or political allegory, the “secret treasure” of its complex simplicity has only unfolded further truths over the years, like the petals of the precious flower of friendship it celebrates.
Vividly realized here, for yet another new generation, by the award-winning graphic novelist Joann Sfar, this stunning adaptation celebrates the 80th anniversary of its French edition, and confirms its wisdom of ages: that life (and love) can be hard; that “grown-ups are very strange”; and that our precious planet is intrinsic with our universal Nature. De Saint-Exupéry’s aircraft disappeared in the wartime skies over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and his death has remained a mystery ever since. “The only reason to speak in riddles,” he wrote, in his prophetic masterpiece, “is to solve them.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born into an aristocratic family in Lyon, France, in 1900, shortly before the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers. He grew up to be inspired by this new technology, and trained and worked as a commercial pilot in the 1920s, writing a series of stories and novels on the subject, including the best-selling Vol de Nuit (Night Flight, 1931). At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he served in the French Air Force, but after the German invasion and Occupation in 1940 lived in exile in the United States, where he wrote his memoir of combat, Pilote de Guerre (Flight to Arras, 1942), as well as his immortal fable The Little Prince, but later returned to serve in the Free French Air Force. His plane disappeared in a reconnaissance mission in July 1944.
Joann Sfar was born in Nice in 1971. After gaining a degree in philosophy, and enrolling at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, he attended the Nawak workshop, where he met such artists as Lewis Trondheim, Emmanuel Guibert, and Christophe Blain. He published his first graphic novel in 1994, and has since produced over 130 titles, including Petit Vampire (Little Vampire), Le Chat du Rabbin (The Rabbi’s Cat), Donjon, and Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). Whether in children’s stories or erotica, action fantasy or meditative reflection, he brings a total originality to all genres, and breathes new life into the comic form. His creative energy has also taken him to other media – to literature, radio drama, painting, and film, notably with Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life and the animated adaptations of his Chat du Rabbin and Petit Vampire.