The author, an aviator, crashes with his aeroplane in the middle of the Sahara desert. While he is trying to repair his aeroplane, a little boy appears and asks him to draw a sheep. The author learns that The Little Prince comes from asteroid B-612 where he has left behind three volcanoes and a rose.
Before reaching Earth, he has visited other planets and met some very odd people: a king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a lamplighter, a geographer… Since arriving on Earth, he has spoken to a fox who has taught him that to know someone or something, you must « tame » them, and that makes them unique. « What is essential is invisible to the eye, says the fox. »
In order to return to his planet and his rose, The Little Prince allows himself to be bitten by a poisonous snake: his planet is too far away, he cannot take his « shell ». The aviator, who has succeeded in repairing his plane, also quits the desert. He still hopes The Little Prince will return one day and asks us to write and tell him if ever we should meet his friend.
More about the planets visited by the Little Prince
Each planet the Little Prince visits can be seen as an allegory of human nature. If you have already read the book, we invite you now to take a new look at the different planets.
The king – asteroid B 325
In the book, the Little Prince meets a king who claims to rule over all with absolute power. His only “subject”, however, is an old rat that he hears at night. The king exercises his power over the sun by ordering it to set – but only at sunset. In order not to lose face, this oddity of a king gives only “reasonable” orders (“I order you to sit down”) – as good a way as any to satisfy his thirst for power. The Little Prince is not fooled, however, and sees the monarch as no more than another odd grown-up.