What's the big deal with "The Little Prince"?

[mōdgethanc]

Seriously, what's so fucking great about this book? I see people listing it as one of their favourite books ever when it's a goddamn children's book they read in French class. Why is everyone but me so obsessed with it? What am I missing?

[Yasna]

When you look at all the other crap the hoi polloi consider great books, it's not really surprising.

[mōdgethanc]

When you look at all the other crap the hoi polloi consider great books, it's not really surprising.

True, but irrelevant. Why is this considered a great book?

[Lauren]

Why? Probably because it's available in so many languages. And it's philosophical and shit, which people love.

[mōdgethanc]

The Stranger is philosophical. I hated it.

[Saaropean]

Why? Probably because it's available in so many languages. And it's philosophical and shit, which people love.

And because it's short. Each chapter is just a few words long. And there are pictures.

[Lur]

When I was a kid I liked some of the dialogues and the drawings and the thought of the little prince on his small round asteroid with the baobab problem is still funny to me.

[Sol Invictus]

The Stranger is philosophical. I hated it.

Really? The Stranger equals The Little Prince?

It is cute, short story that discusses many issues.

I suspect you're a common grown-up and this thread is therefore rather useless

[mōdgethanc]

It is cute, short story that discusses many issues.

And The Stranger is a cute, short novel about a dude who doesn't care when his mother dies and randomly shoots an Arab that also discusses many issues. So?

I suspect you're a common grown-up and this thread is therefore rather useless

"Common"? Excuse me, you're the one who eats potatoes every day like a Latvian peasant farmer. I'm surprised they even have Internet service in your village. trollololol

[Varislintu]

I was never wild about the book either. But I never read it as a child as far as I can remember. The first time I read it as an adult, I have to admit I got slight creepy vibes from it. Like here's this adult man infatuated with this little boy and his beautiful, golden hair. But upon reading it again a few years later, I felt I had overreacted a little bit, and it seemed like a normal story of its era.

[Sol Invictus]

I suspect you're a common grown-up and this thread is therefore rather useless

"Common"? Excuse me, you're the one who eats potatoes every day like a Latvian peasant farmer. I'm surprised they even have Internet service in your village. trollololol

Have you actually read the book recently? Seems you are not aware of what I was referring to Common Latvian farmers didn't eat potatoes and also I don't eat potatoes every day, I merely said that it would be saner choice than pizza diet

The first time I read it as an adult, I have to admit I got slight creepy vibes from it. Like here's this adult man infatuated with this little boy and his beautiful, golden hair.

I've happened across analyses of this book in media now and then, I mostly get a vibe that he probably based the character on himself as a child

[Alcest]

It's basically one of those books you can re-read (and not only because its length), and every time you'll get a new nuance or a new understanding of some parts. It's also a trip back to childhood, its narration sort of makes you think as you did in your childhood (sentences and happenings are very simple, as they were in your mind when you were a child), which is probably the reason why most people like it so much. Plus, it has very interesting readings if you know some bits of Mr Exupéry's life.

But it's fine. If you don't like it, you don't like it. You'll always finds things that most people like and you don't.

[Johanna]

I haven't read it, but just that it's one of the most translated books ever should work in its favour among language nerds. Besides, it's a book for children, so you don't have to be an expert in order to understand its basic meaning, if it works like most children's books that is.

[Pincrete]

It IS better in French, somehow French suits the charm and whimsy of the book.

I've been involved with two theatrical stagings of the book and in both cases the Prince was played by a young woman, somehow there is something androgynous about 'him' that makes it easier to accept the character played by a young woman, and which emphasises 'his' 'other-worldliness'.

No I've never been able to understand WHY it is so highly rated, it's a simple story with cute pictures, but people speak of it as though it has enormous psychological profundity, though no-one has ever been able to tell me WHAT that profundity is, to them it seems self-evident.

If I'm honest, there are books I read in childhood which hold a cherished place in my memory (disproportionate to my adult valuation of them). Perhaps that is the case for many people with The Little Prince.

[angi11]

What I think that makes this book so 'a big deal' is its symbolism. Everything there is symbolic, every aspect of little prince's world (his planet, the baobab trees, the flower), every character he encounters (the king, the conceited man, the drunkard, the businessman, the lamplighter, the geographer, the railway switchman, the salesclerk ...), they are all symbols.

When I read the book when I was little, it was just a cute story. When I read it later, I thought it was more than that. You have to pay special attention to the simple things there.

I just love The Little Prince

[Rivaldo]

Most prestiged novelists needed 900 pages to write something great, this book needed around 80.

Still, it's quite questionable the true ethics, morality behind of lets say, Dostoyevsky, among others, when reading their stories... Sometimes it just doesn't seem that the person behind the book was indeed thinking on something not evil, when writting. With Little Princess... It's other thing.

[Garethw87]

It's shit.

[Set]

It's shit.

Well there you go. Pretty much sums up this whole thread.

[Lauren]

It's shit.

Well there you go. Pretty much sums up this whole thread.

I think that's more of an opinion than a universal fact, if I'm not mistaken.

[Set]

It's shit.

Well there you go. Pretty much sums up this whole thread.

I think that's more of an opinion than a universal fact, if I'm not mistaken.

I really have no idea what you're trying to get at...