The Little Prince Background Notes

The Little Prince – Background Notes Introduction ♦ Saint-Exupéry imagines himself stranded in the Sahara Desert where he meets a young extra-terrestrial prince. ♦ In their conversations, the author reveals his own views about the follies of mankind and the simple truths that people seem to forget as they grow older. ♦ The essence of the book is contained in the famous line uttered by the fox to the little prince: “______”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ♦ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (19___-19___), born in Lyon, ______♦ French writer and ______His life ♦ In ______, he began his military service and was sent to Strasbourg for training as a pilot. ♦ He became one of the pioneers of international postal flight; Saint-Exupéry kept writing and flying until the beginning of ______. ♦ In ______, Saint-Exupéry’s plane crashed in the Mediterranean and disappeared. ♦ In ______, a fisherman found Saint-Exupéry's silver chain bracelet in the ocean south of Marseille. ♦ Investigators confirmed that the twisted wreckage of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, extracted in ______, was Saint-Exupéry's. His work Saint-Exupéry's work is greatly inspired by his experiences as a pilot: L'aviateur (19___) Courrier sud (19___) (Southern Mail) Vol de nuit (19___) (Night Flight) Terre des Hommes (19___) (Wind, Sand and Stars) Pilote de Guerre (19___) (Flight to Arras) Lettre à un Otage (19___) (Letter to a Hostage) Le Petit Prince (19___) (The Little Prince) Citadelle (19___) (The Wisdom of the Sands), posthumous

Part II. The Little Prince The story ♦ Saint-Exupéry’s novel, 1943; written near ______in 19___. ♦ Profound and idealistic points about ______and ______in time of war. ♦ The writer imagines himself lost in the ______desert after a plane crash. ♦ He meets a young extra-terrestrial prince. ♦ The novel includes a number of ______by Saint-Exupéry himself, which are reproduced in most versions. The Characters The ______rules the stars because he orders them to do the things that they would naturally do anyway The ______who wants to be admired by everyone, but lives alone on his planet The ______drinks to forget he is ashamed of drinking The ______who is always busy counting the stars he believes he owns. He wants to buy more stars. The ______who lives on an asteroid which rotates once a minute The Geographer who spends all of his time making maps, but never leaves his desk to explore The prince ♦ The prince lives on an asteroid, ______, which has three volcanoes and a rose. ♦ He spends his days caring for his asteroid, pulling out the ______trees that are trying to take root there. ♦ The Prince leaves one day to see what the rest of the universe is like, and visits several other asteroids each of which is inhabited by an adult who is ______in his own way. ♦ Then, he visits ______where he meets lots of roses, a ______, an aviator and a ______. The rose ♦ The Little Prince is a story about love, the love Saint-Exupéry had for a rose: his ______Consuelo. ♦ The writer met Consuelo Suncin, the widow of a journalist from ______. ♦ The rose of the little prince, like Saint-Exupéry’s wife, was whimsical and temperamental, nonconformist and funny. ♦ Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry wrote ______a year or two after his disappearance. ♦ In 19____, the manuscript was discovered in a trunk; its publication in France in 2000 became a sensation. The fox ♦ Saint-Exupéry’s ______Silvia Reinhardt was his model to create the character of the fox. ♦ The Little Prince meets and tames the fox on ______. ♦ The fox explains to the prince that his rose is ______and ______, because it is the one that he loves. ♦ He tells the prince the meaning of love and friendship and his secret: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Conclusion ♦ The Little Prince has been translated into more than ______languages and, to date, has sold more than _____ million copies worldwide. ♦ In ______, a small asteroid moon, Petit-Prince (discovered in ______), was named after the Little Prince's inspiration. ♦ Asteroid ______Saint-Exupéry was named after the author of The Little Prince.