French Tale

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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Children books – All American fairy tales – The Little Prince – Table of contents
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To LÉON WERTH

I apologise to children for dedicating this book to a grown-up. But I have a good excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have ever had. I have another excuse too: this grown-up understands everything, even books for children. And I have a third excuse: this grown-up lives in France where he is hungry and cold and needs comforting. If these reasons are not enough, I should like to dedicate this book to the child this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children once (but most of them have forgotten). So I will alter my dedication:

To LÉON WERTH
WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY.

Chapter I

When I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the jungle called True Stories. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild animal. This is what it looked like.

In the book it said: ‘Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. Afterwards they are unable to move. Then they sleep for six months while they digest.’

That set me thinking about all the things that go on in the jungle and, with a crayon, I did my first drawing. I called it drawing number one. It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked if they found it scary.

They answered: ‘What’s scary about a hat?’

But my drawing was not of a hat. It was a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. So then I drew the inside of the boa, to help the grown-ups understand. They always need explanations. This is what my drawing number two looked like:

The grown-ups told me to forget about drawing elephants inside boa constrictors and to concentrate instead on geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. Which is why, at the age of six, seeing as my drawing number one and my drawing number two had been such a disaster, I gave up on a glorious career as an artist. Grown-ups never understand anything on their own, and it’s nuisance for children to have to keep explaining things over and over again.

So I had to choose another profession, and I learned to be a pilot. I flew all around the world. And it is true that geography came in very handy. I could tell the difference between China and Arizona at a glance. Which is very useful, if you lose your way at night.

Over the past years, I have met lots of sensible people and spent a lot of time living in the world of grown-ups. I have seen them at close quarters, which has done nothing to change my opinion of them.

Whenever I met a grown-up who seemed fairly intelligent, I would test him with my drawing number one which I have always kept, to find out if he really was perceptive. But he would always reply: ‘It’s a hat.’ So instead of talking to him about boa constrictors or the jungle or the stars, I’d come down to his level and discuss bridge, golf, politics and neckties. And the grown-up would be delighted to meet such a reasonable man

Children books – All American fairy tales – The Little Prince – Table of contents

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Chapter II > > >

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