The Literature Book

238

IT IS SUCH A SECRET

PLACE THE LAND

OF TEARS

THE LITTLE PRINCE (1943),

ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

M

any writers were forced

to flee their homelands

before and during World

War II, and a somber, wistful, and

elegiac tone is often evident in the

literature produced in exile by such

writers, who include Joseph Roth,

Bertolt Brecht, Stefan Zweig, and

Paul Celan. Also among this exodus

was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who

wrote The Little Prince in New York

after he had left France, following

its occupation by the Nazis.

Like many of the great literary

works from this era, The Little

Prince is not strictly a “war” novel

but it is shaped by the political and

social context that the war brought

about. Saint-Exupéry’s book has

been read in numerous ways: as

a general moral and philosophical

fable; as a children’s fairy tale; as

an autobiographical story that has

been reimagined as fantasy; and as

a direct reflection of its times.

These interpretations have all

been made of other works of exile

literature, which commonly lament

a lost way of life.

State of dislocation

Given its genesis in a time of

displacement, it is not surprising

that the title character of Saint-

Exupéry’s novel is an alien boy who

falls to Earth in the eerie landscape

of the Sahara Desert. The narrator,

a pilot who has crash-landed,

encounters the boy there.

Abandonment, wandering,

escape, and instability characterize

the narrative of The Little Prince,

which presents us with a seemingly

simple children’s story. But like all

good examples of such fiction, it is

a tale for both old and young. Saint-

Exupéry takes from classic children’s

literature the idea that the state of

childhood is one of transition, where

difference predominates. The prince

is literally and metaphorically an

alien wandering the Earth—a child

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Writers in exile

BEFORE

1932 The Jewish-Austrian

writer Joseph Roth writes The

Radetzky March, which details

Austria–Hungary’s decline, a

year before he leaves Germany

for Paris. He remains in exile for

the rest of his life.

1939 Bertolt Brecht’s antiwar

play Mother Courage and Her

Children is written a few years

after he flees Nazi persecution.

1941 Published just before

his suicide in Brazilian exile,

Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s

novella The Royal Game

criticizes the brutality of the

Third Reich’s Nazi regime.

AFTER

1952 Holocaust survivor Paul

Celan produces a collection

of poems, Poppy and Memory,

after settling in Paris following

horrific wartime experiences

in his native central Europe.

Here is my secret, very

simply: you can only see

things clearly with your

heart. What is essential is

invisible to the eye.

The Little Prince

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