What book have you read multiple times? Features The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

A little while a go I asked the question; “What book have you read multiple times and why?”

Author Madi Preda chose The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

Here’s what Madi said.

When I was in my primary school I was fortunate enough to have a library there, with a great lady as a librarian and her daughter was my friend. At that time, in Communist Romania, it was hard to buy a good book by international authors and the librarian’s family had the opportunity to get a visa to going to France. It was something extraordinary at that time and they brought for their daughter two photocopied books. One of them was Sans Famille(Nobody’s Boy) by Hector Malot and the other one is the one I want to talk about. It was “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

    I borrowed both of them from my friend and I cried my eyes out following Remi on his journey to find his mother and The Little Prince fascinated my imagination as a child with its watercolour illustrations and the strangeness of the adult world.

Later on in my youth I  read it again and this time I was impressed by his love for the rose and his will to protect her from the cold wind. I appreciated the little prince for his worries about the rose who was left to fend for herself while he was travelling to other asteroids and The Planet Earth. I understood how special and unique his rose was just because he loved her and of course I was dreaming of finding a man like the little prince to love me just as much he loved his rose.

As the author said “One sees clearly with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye”

The time past and when I had to read stories to my kids I remembered The Little Prince. They enjoyed  the story as much as I did and as an adult then, I noticed the philosophy and poetic spirit of this book, looking at it as a book full of observations on the human nature, life and relationships.

After the changes in Romania in 1989 we saw the film directed and produced by Stanley Donen which was an absolute delight.

Finally, now living in Greece I find myself saying like the little prince: in the place where I was born …or in my country …things are so and so and that makes me think about Exupery’s view on expats lives.

That’s why I have read the book many times and have enjoyed finding different meanings to this exceptional book, and thank you Rosie for asking me to write this guest post.

“To Leon Werth

I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse: this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:

To Leon Werth, When he was a little boy”

~Antoine de Saint Exupery

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com