About the Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a pilot in World War II who escaped from his country when the Nazis took over
France. He wrote this novel during World War II while he was living in America, having escaped from his native
France after the Nazis took over the country in 1940.

The Plot Summary

Beginning
The narrator introduces himself as a man who learned when he was a child that adults lack
imagination and understanding. He is now a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert. He encounters
a small boy who asks him for a drawing of a sheep, and the narrator obliges. The narrator, who calls
the child the little prince, learns that the boy comes from a very small planet, which the narrator
believes to be asteroid B-612. Over the course of the next few days, the little prince tells the narrator
about his life. On his asteroid planet, which is no bigger than a house, the prince spends his time
pulling up baobab seedlings lest they grow big enough to engulf the tiny planet. One day
an anthropomorphic rose grows on the planet, and the prince loves her with all his heart. However,
her vanity and demands become too much for the prince, and he leaves.
Middle
The prince travels to a series of asteroids, each featuring a grown-up who has been reduced
to a function. The first is a king who requires obedience but has no subjects until the prince’s arrival.
The sole inhabitant of the next planet is a conceited man who wants nothing from the prince but
flattery. The prince subsequently meets a drunkard, who explains that he must drink to forget how
ashamed he is of drinking. The fourth planet introduces the prince to a businessman, who
maintains that he owns the stars, which makes it very important that he know exactly how many
stars there are. The prince then encounters a lamplighter, who follows orders that require him to
light a lamp each evening and put it out each morning, even though his planet spins so fast that
dusk and dawn both occur once every minute. Finally the prince comes to a planet inhabited by a
geographer. The geographer, however, knows nothing of his own planet, because it is his sole
function to record what he learns from explorers. He asks the prince to describe his home planet,
but when the prince mentions the flower, the geographer says that flowers are not recorded because
they are ephemeral. The geographer recommends that the little prince visit Earth.
On Earth, the prince meets a snake, who says that he can return him to his home, and a flower,
who tells him that people lack roots. He comes across a rose garden, and he finds it very depressing
to learn that his beloved rose is not, as she claimed, unique in the universe. A fox then tells him that
if he tames the fox—that is, establishes ties with the fox—then they will be unique and a source of
joy to each other.
End
The narrator and little prince have now spent eight days in the desert and have run out of
water. The two then traverse the desert in search of a well, which, miraculously, they find. The little
prince tells the narrator that he plans to return that night to his planet and flower and that now the
stars will be meaningful to the narrator, because he will know that his friend is living on one of them.
Returning to his planet requires allowing the poisonous snake to bite him. The story resumes six
years later. The narrator says that the prince’s body was missing in the morning, so he knows that
he returned to his planet, and he wonders whether the sheep that he drew him ate his flower. He
ends by imploring the reader to contact him if they ever spot the little prince.
Chapter 21
"On another planet?"
It was then that the fox appeared.
"Yes."
"Good morning," said the fox.
"Are there hunters on that planet?"
"Good morning," the little prince responded
politely, although when he turned around he saw
"No."
nothing.
"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"
"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple
tree."
"No."
"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added,
"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.
"You are very pretty to look at."
But he came back to his idea.
"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt
"I am a fox," the fox said.
chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just
alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in
"Come and play with me," proposed the little
consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame
prince. "I am so unhappy."
me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my
life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be
"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not
different from all the others. Other steps send me
tamed."
hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will
call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then
"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do
But, after some thought, he added:
not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat
"What does that mean--'tame'?"
fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad.
But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think
"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that
how wonderful that will be when you have tamed
you are looking for?"
me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me
back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen
"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What
to the wind in the wheat . . ."
does that mean--'tame'?"
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.
"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they
"Please--tame me!" he said.
hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise
chickens. These are their only interests. Are you
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But
looking for chickens?"
I have not much time. I have friends to discover,
and a great many things to understand."
"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for
friends. What does that mean--'tame'?"
"One only understands the things that one
tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It
understand anything. They buy things all ready
means to establish ties."
made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere
where one can buy friendship, and so men have
"'To establish ties'?"
no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me
. . ."
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still
nothing more than a little boy who is just like a
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little
hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no
prince.
need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of
me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First
hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame
you will sit down at a little distance from me--like
me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will
that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the
be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique
corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words
in all the world . . ."
are the source of misunderstandings. But you will
sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."
"I am beginning to understand," said the little
The next day the little prince came back.
prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has
"It would have been better to come back at the
tamed me . . ."
same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you
come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at
"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees
three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel
all sorts of things."
happier and happier as the hour advances. At four
o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping
"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little
about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you
prince.
come at just any time, I shall never know at what
The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One thousand other foxes. But I have made him my
must observe the proper rites . . ." friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
"What is a rite?" asked the little prince. And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on.
"Those also are actions too often neglected," said "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary
the fox. "They are what make one day different passerby would think that my rose looked just
from other days, one hour from other hours. There like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in
is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every herself alone she is more important than all the
Thursday they dance with the village girls. So hundreds of you other roses: because it is she
Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a that I have watered; because it is she that I have
walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters put under the glass globe; because it is she that I
danced at just any time, every day would be like have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for
every other day, and I should never have any her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the
vacation at all." two or three that we saved to become butterflies);
because it is she that I have listened to, when she
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when
hour of his departure drew near-- she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry." And he went back to meet the fox.

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never "Goodbye," he said.
wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me
to tame you . . ." "Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my
secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the
"Yes, that is so," said the fox. heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
is invisible to the eye."
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little
prince. "What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little
prince repeated, so that he would be sure to
"Yes, that is so," said the fox. remember.

"Then it has done you no good at all!" "It is the time you have wasted for your rose
that makes your rose so important."
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of
the color of the wheat fields." And then he added: "It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the
"Go and look again at the roses. You will little prince, so that he would be sure to
understand now that yours is unique in all the remember.
world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I
will make you a present of a secret." "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But
you must not forget it. You become responsible,
The little prince went away, to look again at the forever, for what you have tamed. You are
roses. responsible for your rose . . ."
"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet
you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you "I am responsible for my rose," the little prince
have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred