To readers throughout the world, Saint-Exupéry is known chiefly as the author of Le Petit Prince (1943; translated as The Little Prince, 1943)--that is, as the charming, imaginative writer and illustrator of a fable appreciated by both children and adults--and also for Vol de nuit (1931; translated as Night Flight, 1932), a novel on flying, and his poetic volumes Terre des hommes (1939; translated as Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939) and Pilote de guerre (1942; translated as Flight to Arras, 1942), all of which have been published in many languages. In France, he is viewed not only as the greatest writer on aviation, but also as a master of French prose and a moral spokesman of his generation, whose works have a significance that goes well beyond their immediate topics. Changing literary tastes in the decades since his death and the birth of a new criticism that has ignored him almost completely have...