Every year Madrid hosts the Feria del Libro (the book festival). Exhibitors sell their books in the capital’s sunny streets. The passage of the royal family along the alleyways of the festival is an integral part of the event.
When reading El Mundo, the famous national daily, we found out that Queen Sofìa had stopped at a stand that sold… The Little Prince by Joann Sfar! The graphic novel ended up among the Queen’s purchases! After a king, our Little Prince has now met a Queen.
The character of The Little Prince is interpreted by many readers as a hallucination or a mirage. In some ways that is also true of Davy Mourier, an internet blogger and designer who is very famous on the web as well as on digital channels as the presenter of Roadstrip and J’irais loler sur vos tombes. In his blog, entitled Badstrip, he recounts the adventures or rather the misadventures of Buzz Aldrin, a spaceman lost on the moon. Recently, Davy Mourier contrived an encounter between his hero and the Little Prince…
To find out how the story ends along with all Davy’s news, visit Badstrip!
The Little Prince is a big celebrity in Brazil. The stage show based on his story attracted an audience of 200,000. Just as he does in France, the Little Prince lends his support to causes such as children in need. The Little Prince is part of the school curriculum, in a book where children hear about love for the first time. In October 2009, São Paulo played host to a huge exhibition dedicated to the Little Prince and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Click on the links to read previous news stories (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5) or watch the video below. Just look at the queues outside the Oca pavilion! The little Prince exhibition was later transferred from São Paulo to Rio and such was its success (over 100,000 visitors), its run was extended.
After operas and theatre adaptations… Sonia Petrovna directs The Little Prince in a show that combines song, dance and music. In this show, Sonia Petrova has decided to highlight the book’s metaphysical aspects, its emotions and its sentiment while narrating the original text and revealing its essence through dance and choruses… We went to the Opéra Théâtre d’Avignon to meet Sonia Petrovna and watch the performance. Discover our exclusive report on this show, the first of its kind in the world.
Have you heard of Mamie’s blog? It relates the often irreverent but always funny adventures of an old lady and her husband. The blog’s author is graphic novelist Alexandre Arlène, who also responded to our request for drawings based on the Little Prince. If you were wondering where the Little Prince sleeps on such a tiny planet, Alexandre will reply by showing you the Little Prince’s bedroom, actually inside asteroid B612. That takes some imagining! Check out Alexandre Arlène’s work on his blog now!
The second and final part of an interview with director and writer Virgil Tanase, in which he explains how The Little Prince should be understood and what constitutes its great literary value. He takes about his work with the Succession Saint-Exupéry Estate, how necessary it is given the growing demand from academics, but also in order to restore Saint-Exupéry to his rightful place in the French literary canon. And if you’d like to meet some other great friends of the Little Prince, head for the Phenomenon section!
It’s out on the newsstands now, and features six pages devoted to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his famous high-risk mission to Arras. Jean-Pierre Guéno tells the story, and makes us keenly aware of just how tough the fighting was and, above all, of the fact that France fought, and fought bravely, against the Germans. The writer harks back to the origins of Pilote de Guerre (Flight to Arras), and the need that drove Saint-Exupéry to write this book. It was a book that was first censored and then banned in France, a book that was to change American opinion of the French defeat, but also a book that was to attract hostility from both Gaullists and from the Vichy regime.
The illustrated article looks back to a dark period in French history and demolishes all misunderstandings regarding Saint-Exupéry’s stance during the war. For friends of the Little Prince, these few lines will tell you more about the origins of the book.
Savousepate, alias Marylène, is a web applications developer in Nancy. She is also a talented artist, and only too happy to respond to our call for drawings and paintings. Her favourite passage from the Little Prince is this one:
« Thus it was that the little prince tamed the fox. And when the time came for his departure, the fox said: “Oh, I shall cry!” “It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I wished you no harm but you wanted me to tame you.” “Yes, indeed,” said the fox. “But you are going to cry!” said the little prince. “That is so,” said the fox. “Then it has not helped you in any way!” “It has helped me,” said the fox, “because of the colour of the wheat fields.”
Savousepate has sent in a magnificent watercolour depicting the departure of the Little Prince. We love the gentle way it reminds us of the true value of a friendship. Find out more on her blog.
If you happen to live in or near Avignon, then you have a date with the Little Prince. We are talking, of course, about the show staged and performed by Sonia Petrovna to music composed by Laurent Petitgirard. A show that blends song, ballet and music and, in the words of Sonia Petrovna, “draws upon the metaphysics of the tale itself”. The performance is aimed at an audience of adults and children alike. Make a note of the date, 21 May, to experience all the magic of the Little Prince in a unique show, with lighting by Jacques Chatelet.
We will be attending the performance on 21 May to bring you an exclusive interview with Sonia Petrovna and extracts from the show. Expect to hear from us soon.
Here’s a date for your diary! On 26 May 2010, look out for an article by Jean-Pierre Guéno in the pages of Le Monde Magazine. The author of La Mémoire du Petit Prince returns to the subject of Saint-Exupéry’s hazardous mission over Arras on 23 May 1940. This was the mission that inspired his famous work Pilote de Guerre (Flight to Arras), which would later be banned by the German authorities. It is a must-read article that explains Saint-Exupéry’s difficult position during the Second World War and also harks back to the origins of the Little Prince.
For more information about Flight to Arras, visit the Author section.
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