by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A French airman during the "golden age" of aviation, Antoine de Saint-Exupery flew mail routes in northern Africa throughout the 1920s and 1930s. His experiences piloting the small, open-cockpit planes and brokering peace between the Moors of Africa and the imperial French and Spanish occupiers of the land inspired him to write serious books chronicling his desert adventures during this era. Based on true experiences as well as deeply held beliefs, The Little Prince is a fantasy novel that comments on the social ills of Saint-Exupery's time. With growing emphasis on science and technology in addition to swelling bureaucracy, increased violence and a world war, the first decades of the 1900s were regarded as a time of progress by some and an era of decline by others. The Little Prince is Saint-Exupery's attempt to honor the values he perceives to...