SOURCE: "Pantagruel and Le petit prince." Symposium Vol. XXI, No. 3, Fall, 1967, pp. 264-70.

In the essay below, Price compares The Little Prince in style and theme to François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Any attempt to determine whether one writer has influenced another when the only proof that can be adduced is similarity of thought and expression is risky business at best. One must refrain from yielding to the ever-present temptation to see literary influences at work when, in all likelihood, discoverable parallels are simply coincidental or, as is often the case, one is dealing with kindred souls thinking alike but independently of each other. Nevertheless, comparative studies of strangely similar works do have their place in literary criticism. Apart from any attempt to suggest influence, they can be valuable in that they often serve to make the ideas contained in each of the works more meaningful, for...