The Little Prince

The Little Prince is a poetic tale, with watercolour illustrations by the author, in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. The story is philosophical and includes societal criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world. It was written during a dark, restless, but productive period for Saint-Exupéry after he fled to North America subsequent to the Fall of France during the Second World War, witnessed first hand by the author and captured in his memoir Flight to Arras.
Though ostensibly a children's book, The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature.