El principito

I'm proud to have finished Le Petit Prince because it is the first book I have read entirely in French since my A Level exams over twenty years ago! Admittedly this is a children's book and it took me the best part of two weeks, but it's an encouraging start!

I hadn't read this story before so wasn't prepared for how surreal it is. On one hand this was great for me because I thought it an entertaining tale and Saint-Exupery's imaginative details frequently had me laughing out loud. It's vitally important to keep your volcanoes well swept! On the other hand though, bizarre plot ideas often had me doubting my translation skills. I was sure 'Dessine-moi un mouton' meant 'draw me a sheep' but that made no sense. Nonsensical however is what Le Petit Prince is all about so sheep were indeed drawn!

Saint-Exupery veers from surreal to overly-sentimental and is often repetitive. Had I read the story through just in English, I probably would have been irritated by this, but for language study purposes it was useful to have new words reoccurring in later pages. Whether I will ever again need the words for someone who lights streetlamps or a man who manually changes railway points is another matter. The French did often seem overly flowery and I notice Arvel's translation sometimes paraphrases to simplify this. Overall I enjoyed this book and it is a fun tale, albeit a completely mad one!