SOURCE: "Le petit prince, "in A Student's Guide to Saint-Exupéry, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., 1972, pp. 84-91.

Masters is an English educator and critic. In the following excerpt, he discusses themes of love, maturity, and responsibility in The Little Prince.

Le Petit Prince was published in New York in 1943, only a few months after Lettre i un Otage. It purports to be a story for children (and can be read as such), but the story illustrates the eternal truths which Saint-Exupéry had been at pains to convey in his other books, and which the 'grown-ups' who read them had been too stupid to understand.

In addressing his book to children, and making frequent, gently sarcastic remarks about the obscurantism of the adults, the author wishes to point out that his book has much to teach the 'grandes personnes', if only they would listen. Perhaps it is for...