The Little Prince as seen by FedM

FedM is a student of Art History in Tours. Aged just 22, he already has one album (Anonyman) to his name, published by Merluche Comics. FedM is strongly influenced by comics and mangas and pays tribute on his blog to many a popular icon such as Robert de Niro and Wolverine.

 

Today he adopts a deliberate “cartoon” style for his version of the Little Prince. Two of the emblematic characters from the tale are easily recognised: the rose  and the aviator (whose features and cigarette cannot fail to recall a certain Antoine).

 

Explore FedM’s world on his blog and discover Anonyman, his first album, by publishers Merluche Comics.

 

The Pop-up book: THE Christmas present of 2009!

A lot of book shops have sold out of the Little Prince pop-up book, which means that the animated book has found its way to the foot of many Christmas trees and into the hearts of children this Christmas. In a matter of a few months, this adorable book of a new kind has become hard to find.

Thank you for contributing to the success of this new vision of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s tale. We hope you very much enjoy reading it.

 

Few books are avaible in the online store, just click on the picture.

 

If you have a copy of the pop-up book and would like to talk to others about it, why not visit the forum?

The Little Prince as seen by Nicole Claveloux

Nicole Claveloux is an illustrator who was born on 23 June 1940 in the town of Saint-Etienne, where she later studied art. Since 1966, she has illustrated reviews for the Bayard-Presse group and for publishers Harlin Quist and François Ruy-Vidal. Her work is often to be found in children’s books. She also paints, and her collection includes surrealistic paintings and nods in the direction of popular comic-strip heroes such as Spirou and Little Némo.

 

 

In the 1990s, Jean-Claude Le Dro organised an exhibition based around the Little Prince at the main Library in Nantes. Nicole decided to draw a Little Prince in his 80s, surrounded by dedications from famous pilots. The drawing shows that our Little Prince has had a long life, full of encounters and exchanges.

 

Find out more: Nicole Claveloux’s official website

The Little Prince sends you Christmas greetings!

Whoever you are, grown-up or child, the Little Prince and everyone on his website team wish you a very Merry Christmas, full of friendship and sharing.

 

Little princes and princesses the world over, look up at the stars, see them sparkle; somewhere up in the sky there is a Little Prince on his asteroid, taking care of his rose.

 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Little Prince by Uderzo

For those who missed the special issue of Lire magazine marking the 60th anniversary of the Little Prince, we offer a drawing by one of the most famous names in the world of French comic strip illustrations: none other than Uderzo, one of the two creators of Astérix the Gaul. In 2009, the famous warrior fuelled by magic potion celebrated his 50th anniversary.

In the drawing, the Little Prince has apparently asked Uderzo to draw him a sheep, but Uderzo seems to have gone over the top. The Little Prince’s planet is covered not in baobabs but in sheep, happily grazing the surface of asteroid B612.

The Little Prince for little princes in Russia

This is a year of celebration for Russia, marking fifty years since the Little Prince was translated into Russian. The Little Prince is represented in Russia by the voluntary association The Little Prince’s Stars, headed by Igor Shamraev. To mark the fiftieth anniversary, an audio recording of the book has been made in partnership with the association Podari Zhizn (Give Life). Famous artists such as Tchulpan Khamatova, Konstantin Khabensky, Mikhail Efremov and  Mikhail Efremov lend their voices to the tale.

 

All proceeds from the sale of the recording will go to Podari Zhizn, which is raising funds for a cytogenetic (cell analysis) laboratory for Russia’s National Paediatric Hospital. The laboratory will be officially named after the Little Prince in spring 2010.

 

 

On 17 December Olivier d’Agay, director of the Succession Saint-Exupéry estate, and actress Dina Korzoune, co-founder of Podari Zhizn, paid a visit to a group of sick children to present them with the first copies of the recording.

 

Find out more: www.lepetitprince.ru (in Russian)

Saint-Exupéry’s Argentina

On 16 November 2009, we told you about Bruno d’Agay’s journey around South America in search of documents and first-hand accounts of the exploits of Saint-Exupéry and l’Aéropostale. Well, Bruno arrived safely and is now in Argentina – in Concordia, to be precise. In the chapter entitled Oasis in his book Wind, Sand and Stars, Saint-Exupéry writes of a heavy landing in which one of the wheels on his landing gear was damaged.

 

As he was attempting to repair his aircraft, he met the Fuchs family. While he was waiting for the repairs to be completed, he accepted an invitation to be their guest at the family castle of San Carlos in Entre Rios province. It proved to be a vast, somewhat dilapidated building but the furniture was always impeccably cleaned and polished, an aspect that delighted Saint-Exupéry the moment he stepped into the castle.

 

 

Saint-Exupéry found his hosts to be rather unusual, too: the Fuchs family tamed wild animals! They had an iguana, a monkey, a mongoose and even… a fox – all tame. During his stay at the castle, the author was impressed by the two young daughters of the house, who led very different lives from those of most little girls in the 1930s.  With serious faces, the two children watched him to gauge his reaction as they announced that there were vipers living under the dining room floor.

 

 

I, in my turn, watched these young girls without seeming to.  Their refinement, their silent laughter behind the untroubled faces. And I admired that sense of royalty they gave off.

The Little Prince as seen by Ileana

Ileana Surducan is an artist from the town of Cluj-Napoca in Romania, studying Ceramics at Art School. Ileana has a great love of drawing, and has set up a blog on which she regularly posts some of her illustrations. We love the way she handles colours, her original characters (including her own graphic avatar) and the warmth of her drawings that lure the eye to linger over every detail.

 

Ileana entered her representation of the Little Prince for a competition launched on the Internet. We were impressed by her technique, with the snake blending into the scarf, and the sense of loneliness given off by the illustration.  In its mingling of grey, black and white, it is also an intensely poetic rendering.

 

You can see more of Ileana’s work on her blog.

 

Take a break in the company of Marie-Christine Barrault

The Rencontres Internationales Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a three-day invitation-only event for those with a special interest in the message of Saint-Exupéry, was made up of debates, lectures and exchanges of views, interspersed with artistic presentations. After the excerpt by Nikolaus Schapfl, our next offering is a reading from Terre des Hommes (« Wind, Sand and Stars« ). Actress Marie-Christine Barrault reads the passage in which Saint-Exupéry, then a reporter for daily newspaper Paris Soir is sent on an assignment to Moscow.

 

He recounts his journey by train and gives a description of his fellow-passengers, Polish workers expelled from France. In this extract, Saint-Exupéry’s attention lingers on a couple as he contemplates the beauty of their sleeping child:  « I studied that smooth forehead, that gentle pout of the lips, and I said to myself here is the face of a musician, a Mozart as a child; here is a fine promise of life.« 

 

 

 

Jean-Pierre Guéno talks about Saint-Exupéry

Last June, the author of  La mémoire du Petit Prince was invited to the Rencontres internationales Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a three-day invitation-only event for those with a special interest in Saint-Exupéry’s message. While still hard at work on his book, Jean-Pierre Guéno accepted the invitation to speak about the modernity of Saint-Exupéry’s thought, and how it is possible to discern in his message an interest in what we now call sustainable development. Or rather, perhaps, his worries over the many forms of waste in our society, which he saw as « a great termite mound ».

 

With no more ado, we invite you to watch and hear Jean-Pierre Guéno talking about Saint-Exupéry, a writer with a voice as compelling as that of the Little Prince addressing the aviator lost in the desert.

 

 

 

Read what others had to say on the Rencontres internationales Antoine de Saint-Exupéry website.

 

La mémoire du Petit Prince is available from the Little Prince online store.