The Little Prince summary main page. Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince": description, characters, analysis of the work

At the age of six, the boy read about how a boa constrictor swallows its prey and drew a picture of a snake swallowing an elephant. It was a drawing of a boa constrictor on the outside, but the adults claimed it was a hat. Adults always need to explain everything, so the boy made another drawing - a boa constrictor from the inside. Then the adults advised the boy to quit this nonsense - according to them, he should have studied more geography, history, arithmetic and spelling. So the boy abandoned his brilliant career as an artist. He had to choose a different profession: he grew up and became a pilot, but still showed his first drawing to those adults who seemed to him smarter and more understanding than the others - and everyone answered that it was a hat. It was impossible to talk heart to heart with them - about boa constrictors, the jungle and the stars. And the pilot lived alone until he met the Little Prince.

This happened in the Sahara. Something broke in the plane's engine: the pilot had to fix it or die, because there was only enough water left for a week. At dawn, the pilot was awakened by a thin voice - a tiny baby with golden hair, who somehow ended up in the desert, asked him to draw a lamb for him. The amazed pilot did not dare refuse, especially since he new friend turned out to be the only one who was able to see in the first drawing a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant. It gradually became clear that A little prince It came from a planet called “asteroid B-612” - of course, the number is only necessary for boring adults who adore numbers.

The whole planet was the size of a house, and the Little Prince had to take care of it: every day he cleaned three volcanoes - two active and one extinct, and also weeded out baobab sprouts. The pilot did not immediately understand what danger the baobab trees posed, but then he guessed and, in order to warn all the children, he drew a planet where there lived a lazy person who did not weed out three bushes on time. But the Little Prince always put his planet in order. But his life was sad and lonely, so he loved to watch the sunset - especially when he was sad. He did this several times a day, simply moving the chair after the sun. Everything changed when a wonderful flower appeared on his planet; it was a beauty with thorns - proud, touchy and simple-minded. The little prince fell in love with her, but she seemed capricious, cruel and arrogant to him - he was too young then and did not understand how this flower illuminated his life. And so the Little Prince cleaned out last time his volcanoes, tore out the baobab sprouts, and then said goodbye to his flower, who only at the moment of farewell admitted that he loved him.

He went on a journey and visited six neighboring asteroids. The king lived on the first one: he wanted to have subjects so much that he invited the Little Prince to become a minister, and the little one thought that adults were a very strange people. On the second planet lived an ambitious man, on the third a drunkard, on the fourth a business man, and on the fifth a lamplighter. All the adults seemed extremely strange to the Little Prince, and he only liked the Lamplighter: this man remained faithful to the agreement to light the lanterns in the evenings and turn off the lanterns in the mornings, although his planet had shrunk so much that day and night changed every minute. Don't have so little space here. The little prince would have stayed with the Lamplighter, because he really wanted to make friends with someone - besides, on this planet you could admire the sunset one thousand four hundred and forty times a day!

On the sixth planet there lived a geographer. And since he was a geographer, he was supposed to ask travelers about the countries from which they came in order to record their stories in books. The little prince wanted to talk about his flower, but the geographer explained that only mountains and oceans are recorded in books, because they are eternal and unchanging, and flowers do not live long. Only then did the Little Prince realize that his beauty would soon disappear, and he left her alone, without protection and help! But the resentment had not yet passed, and the Little Prince moved on, but he only thought about his abandoned flower.

The seventh was Earth - a very difficult planet! Suffice it to say that there are one hundred and eleven kings, seven thousand geographers, nine hundred thousand businessmen, seven and a half million drunkards, three hundred and eleven million ambitious people - a total of about two billion adults. But the Little Prince made friends only with the snake, the Fox and the pilot. The snake promised to help him when he bitterly regretted his planet. And the Fox taught him to be friends. Anyone can tame someone and become their friend, but you always need to be responsible for those you tame. And the Fox also said that only the heart is vigilant - you cannot see the most important thing with your eyes. Then the Little Prince decided to return to his rose, because he was responsible for it. He went into the desert - to the very place where he fell. That’s how they met the pilot. The pilot drew him a lamb in a box and even a muzzle for the lamb, although he previously thought that he could only draw boa constrictors - outside and inside. The little prince was happy, but the pilot became sad - he realized that he, too, had been tamed. Then the Little Prince found a yellow snake, whose bite kills in half a minute: she helped him, as she promised. The snake can return anyone to where he came from - she returns people to the earth, and returned the Little Prince to the stars. The kid told the pilot that it would only look like death, so there was no need to be sad - let the pilot remember it while looking at the night sky. And when the Little Prince laughs, it will seem to the pilot that all the stars are laughing, like five hundred million bells.

The pilot repaired his plane, and his comrades rejoiced at his return. Six years have passed since then: little by little he calmed down and fell in love with looking at the stars. But he is always overcome with excitement: he forgot to draw a strap for the muzzle, and the lamb could eat the rose. Then it seems to him that all the bells are crying. After all, if the rose is no longer in the world, everything will become different, but no adult will ever understand how important this is.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery - fairy tale "The Little Prince".

"A little prince" - philosophical tale. One of the problems posed by the author in it is the problem of the true meaning of life. Exupery identifies this problem by showing the reader false life meanings. A string of human passions and vices appears in episodes of the Little Prince's visits to various asteroids. So, on the nearest asteroid lives a king. The thirst for power, according to the writer, is the strongest and most dangerous of all human passions. However, the author deliberately reduces this passion in the eyes of the reader: the planet is small and deserted, it is simply impossible to command there. However, the desire to rule does not leave the king, turning him into a maniac. Other human passion- ambition. When the hero visits the planet of an ambitious person, he sees in him only his long-awaited admirer. The little prince also does not find mutual understanding when communicating with the ambitious man. The drunkard, the businessman, and the scientist are just as lonely and funny in the fairy tale. The hero, perhaps, could only make friends with the lamplighter, because he is busy with work and thinks about others.

The theme of the meaning of life is closely linked in Exupery's fairy tale with the theme of love. Love, according to the writer, is responsibility for a dear being. It was difficult for the little prince to get along with the capricious rose, and he left her on his planet. But then, on long journeys, he begins to worry that the rose might be eaten by a lamb. Later, the prince admits to the pilot that he regrets leaving and that he was angry with the rose. He suddenly realizes that he was young and did not know how to love.

The story of the rose is intertwined in the fairy tale with the story of the Fox, whom the Little Prince manages to tame. The Fox's life was gray and dull: he hunted chickens, people hunted him. But after meeting the Little Prince, the Fox's life is illuminated with a new light: he begins to perceive the world in a new way, correlating its colors and sounds with the image of his beloved prince.

And Exupery’s hero gradually begins to discover the true meaning of love. However, this realization does not come to him immediately. On the way, the Little Prince encounters a whole garden of roses, and he feels deceived. But then he realizes that his rose is still unique: “The little prince went to look at the roses. “You are not at all like my rose,” he told them. - You are nothing yet. No one has tamed you and you have not tamed anyone. This is how my Fox used to be. He was no different from thousands of other foxes. But I became friends with him, and now he is the only one in the whole world.” Thus, the author tells us that love is work. The person we care about becomes dear to us. The little prince returns to his planet to protect the rose. The price of this love is death, renunciation of earthly existence. And the hero disappears. Love, the opportunity to give your life for a loved one, is, according to the author, the true meaning of life.

/ / "A little prince"

Date of creation: 1943.

Genre: fairy tale story.

Subject: friendship and loyalty; duty and responsibility; meaning of life.

Idea: true values ​​in life: care, loyalty, friendship, responsibility, love.

Issues. Misunderstanding between children and adults.

Main characters: pilot, little prince.

Plot. A six-year-old boy learned from a book that a boa constrictor swallows its prey. The result was a drawing of a snake swallowing an elephant. To all adults, this image seemed like a hat. An attempt to draw a boa constrictor from the inside also did not meet with understanding. The adults advised me to take up serious school subjects instead of this nonsense. Thus, the future of the artist was closed for the boy. Over time, he mastered the serious profession of a pilot, but continued to demonstrate his mysterious drawing to more reasonable, in his opinion, adults. The answer was traditional: it's a hat. Was it possible to have intimate conversations with them? So the pilot was lonely before meeting the Little Prince.

The meeting took place in the Sahara Desert. The plane's engine failed, the malfunction had to be fixed urgently, otherwise the pilot would die: the water supply could only be extended for a week. The pilot woke up at dawn because someone was speaking in a thin childish voice. It was golden hair a little boy, somehow ended up in the desert. He needed a drawn lamb, and the kid asked the pilot for it. He fulfilled his request, because this child saw a boa constrictor in the “hat”. This is how the pilot met the Little Prince, who had flown from a very small planet, or rather, from an asteroid.

The planet was no larger than a house. The Little Prince looked after her very diligently. He had to clean volcanoes: one of them was extinct, and two were active. In addition, the Little Prince pulled out sprouted baobab trees. This was very important for the planet. The Little Prince lived a sad and lonely life. His only entertainment was watching the sunset. But one day his planet seemed to be illuminated by a wonderful flower - a beautiful rose with thorns. And the life of the Little Prince changed. He fell in love with this proud beauty, but it seemed to him that she was cruel, picky and arrogant. And she was simply naive and vulnerable. The little prince was too young to understand this. He still did not understand what happiness this rose brought into his life. And the Little Prince decided to set off on a journey. Finally, he cleaned out the volcanoes, rid the planet of sprouted baobab trees and said goodbye to his rose, which only told the Little Prince about her love when parting.

On his journey, he first visited nearby asteroids. On one lived a king eager to rule. Another asteroid was the abode of an ambitious man, a drunkard settled on the third, and a businessman settled on the fourth. The little prince liked the inhabitant of the fifth asteroid, unlike the adults from other asteroids. It was a lamplighter. He lit the lanterns with the onset of evening and extinguished them at dawn, although his planet was so small that day gave way to night within a minute. But the lamplighter was faithful to the agreement and tirelessly fulfilled his duty.

The sixth asteroid was occupied by a geographer; he was interested in the stories of travelers. The little prince began to talk about his rose, but the geographer said that he was not interested in flowers because they did not live long. And the Little Prince suddenly realized that his beloved rose would soon be gone, and she was left alone, helpless and defenseless. However, the Jew still felt resentment toward him, and the Little Prince continued on his way, but now he was haunted by thoughts about the abandoned flower.

And here he is on Earth. And how difficult everything is here! This planet is full of kings, geographers, businessmen, drunkards and ambitious people. They all make up billions of adults. The only friends of the Little Prince were the snake, the fox and the pilot. If the prince yearns for his asteroid, the snake will help him out, so she promised. And the fox was very smart. The fox knew about friendship: if you tamed someone, then you are now his friend, but now you are responsible for the tamed one. And he also knew that not everything is accessible to the eyes; the main thing is discerned only by the heart. And the Little Prince decided to return to his asteroid, to the rose for which he was responsible. It was necessary to set off from the same place in the desert where he fell.

Here the kid met the pilot, who made him a drawing of a lamb hidden in a box, and also drew a muzzle for him. The little prince was happy, and then the snake returned him to the stars. He reassured the pilot that from the outside it only looked like death, there was no need to be sad. It's better to let him watch at night starry sky and remembers him. The laughter of the Little Prince will resonate for the pilot with the laughter of the stars - many bells.

The pilot managed to repair the plane and returned to his comrades. Six years passed and he stopped grieving. He also loved looking at the stars at night. But he was always worried that he didn't complete the design with a muzzle strap. As if the lamb ate the flower... Then the pilot imagined the cry of bells. If the rose dies, then everything will change. Can adults understand this?

Review of the work. The tale is amazing. It amazes adults more than children; it makes one remember the worldview of childhood and the real values ​​of life.

A six-year-old boy found a picture and a description in a book that said that a boa constrictor swallows its victim whole. He drew a boa constrictor that ate an elephant whole. But the adults did not understand the meaning of the picture and said that it was a hat. So the narrator lived alone.

One day, due to a plane breakdown, he ended up in the Sahara, where he met unusual boy, who asked the narrator to draw him a lamb. He declared all the pictures unsuitable. He liked the drawing of the box. The author explained that the lamb is inside. This made the boy happy, because now his lamb had a home. This is how the author became friends with the little prince who flew to Earth from planet B-612. The kid intended to feed the lamb baobabs. He told his new friend that there were too many of these plants on his planet. The boy feared that their roots would take over the entire planet. Therefore, every morning, after getting himself in order, he weeded the baobabs. Watching the sunset was the prince's favorite and only pastime.

A few days later the friends were talking about flowers. The prince tried to find out why they needed thorns. He did not agree with his friend that this was a manifestation of anger, but believed that flowers needed thorns for courage. There was one flower growing on the prince's planet. The boy was worried that the lamb would eat him. This flower appeared on the planet from nowhere. With the appearance of the capricious beauty, life on the planet was transformed. She tormented the prince with her touchiness. He left the beauty, who wished the boy a good trip and admitted that she loved him.

The little prince visited several asteroids. At the nearest one the boy met the king. They were having a conversation about the wisdom of the orders. The king could not by his order arrange a sunset for the boy. The prince became bored and moved on.

On the next planet, the kid met an ambitious man. This man's whole life was spent trying to get others to honor him, despite the fact that his planet was rarely visited.

On the next asteroid, he met a drunkard who drank to drown his conscience.

On the next tiny planet lived a lamplighter. His job was to light and extinguish the lantern. He did not stop doing this, since the planet was spinning very quickly, and the lamplighter did not even have time to sleep.

On another larger planet, the boy met a geographer. The old man was writing books. The geographer told the kid that scientists compile their notes from the stories of travelers. The prince described his planet in detail. An old geographer told the boy about planet Earth and recommended visiting it.

The little prince continued his journey. On earth, the baby made friends with a fox, a snake and a pilot. The fox told the boy the truth about friendship. The little prince remembered his flower, which no one cared about except him. He asked the snake to bite him and told the pilot that it would not be death at all. So the prince returned to the stars.

Year of writing:

1942

Reading time:

Description of the work:

We are pleased to present to you summary fairy tales "The Little Prince", because this is one of the most famous works Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The book was written in New York and published there. A particularly interesting point is that the drawings in the book “The Little Prince” were made by Exupery himself, and they are an integral part of the text.

When the boy was six years old, he read in a book what happens when a boa constrictor swallows a captured animal, and decided to draw a snake that swallowed an elephant. The adults thought that the drawing resembled a hat, although the boy depicted what a boa constrictor looked like from the outside. Adults don't understand anything. I had to draw another picture - there the boa constrictor was already shown from the inside. And again the adults did not understand anything, and besides, they said that it would be better for the child not to engage in nonsense, but to pay more attention to geography, history, arithmetic and spelling. And although a wonderful career as an artist opened up for the boy, he trained as a pilot because he gave up drawing. But that drawing remained, and, as an adult, the boy sometimes asked similar adults to look at it, but only if they were a little smarter than others. But they also said that the picture shows a hat. Yes, you can’t talk openly with such people about what’s inside you, you can’t discuss boa constrictors, stars or the jungle. The pilot was lonely until he met the Little Prince.

The pilot was flying over the Sahara, and suddenly some kind of problem occurred with the engine. It was necessary to somehow fix the motor, because there would not be enough water for a long time. Dawn came, the pilot woke up from what he heard unusual voice. He saw a tiny baby, who somehow ended up in the desert, and who turned to him with a request: please draw a lamb. They became friends. The baby had golden hair and had a thin voice. But what surprised the pilot most of all was that this little one was the first to recognize in that old drawing a boa constrictor, and not a hat. Yes, it was a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant. A little later, the pilot found out that the Little Prince’s planet was “Asteroid B-612”, and that’s where he arrived from. But there was no need to remember the number of the planet; let boring adults who only think about numbers do that. Continuing the summary of "The Little Prince", let's look at the planet of this fairy-tale baby.

The little prince took great care of his planet, which was similar in size to a house: every day he cleaned the volcanoes, two of which were active, and one was already extinct. He carefully pulled out the small baobab trees growing there. At first, the pilot had no idea why weeding the sprouts of these trees and why they were dangerous, but later he understood. Then he decided to visually draw what happened to the planet of a lazy person who was too lazy to weed out a few bushes. But the Little Prince could not be called lazy; he tried very hard to maintain cleanliness on his planet. However, the baby was sad and lonely, and most of all he liked to admire the sunset - it dispelled his sadness. He moved his chair several times a day to keep up with the sun. One day the Little Prince noticed an amazing flower - a proud and touchy beauty. The flower had thorns, but the baby realized that he loved her - capricious, cruel and arrogant. At that time, he had not yet realized how much the beauty had changed his life and illuminated it. He decided to confess his love to the flower and say goodbye to it. Having finally cleaned the volcanoes and weeded the sprouts as usual, the Little Prince flew away.

He began his wanderings and managed to visit neighboring planets. More precisely, they were asteroids, and there were six of them in the neighborhood. During the first stop, the little prince immediately realized how strange these adults were. He met a king who dreamed of subjects, so he said that he would like to see the baby as a minister. The inhabitant of the second asteroid was an ambitious man, the third was inhabited by a drinker, and the fourth was too businesslike. On the fifth, the little prince met the lamplighter, who sympathized with him most of all, because he tirelessly lit the lights in the lanterns every evening, and extinguished them in the morning. True, his planet was so small that day and night changed every minute. The kid would like to become a friend of the Lamplighter, but his planet was too small. But how cool it would be to watch the sunset 1440 times a day!

The sixth planet was the abode of the geographer. And since this was his profession, this man did nothing but ask where the traveler came from, what he knew about his country. The geographer recorded all this and compiled books. The little prince wanted to tell the geographer about a beautiful flower, but he said that there was no point in writing about flowers, because they were so short-lived. It's another thing to write down a story about mountains and oceans! And then the Little Prince realized that his beauty’s life was short, and she was left alone, defenseless and helpless! But he was still offended by her, so he flew on, but his thoughts were only about his amazing flower.

Finally, the Little Prince arrived on the seventh planet. This is Earth! Oh, how complicated it is! Just think about the fact that more than a hundred kings, thousands of geographers, hundreds of thousands business people who mind their own business, and millions of drunkards. Not to mention the number of ambitious people. In total, two billion adults. The kid chose only three as friends - the snake, the Fox and the pilot. The snake said that he would help him, and thanks to the Fox, the little prince learned to be friends. Anyone can become friends with the one they have tamed, but then you need to take care of such a friend to the end. The fox also revealed a secret: the eyes cannot see everything, but the most important thing can only be seen with the heart.

After this, the Little Prince realized that he must take care of his flower to the end, and firmly decided to return. Since he originally flew to Earth after falling in the desert, he hurried to that very place. And there I met a pilot whom I asked to draw unusual picture: There is a lamb sitting inside the box, and next to it there is a muzzle for it. When the Little Prince received his painting, he felt happy, but the pilot became sad, because he thought that now he, too, had been tamed. We have almost reached the end of the summary of “The Little Prince”.

Then, as Snake promised, she came to the baby’s aid. After her bite, everything is over within half a minute. The Yellow Snake is able to return anyone to their place - she can return a person to the earth, and thanks to her, the Little Prince returned to the star. When they said goodbye to the pilot, he explained to him that there was no need to cry after his departure, although it would resemble death. But when the pilot looks at the stars at night, one can remember the Little Prince. And if the baby up there in the sky starts laughing, then all the stars will seem to be laughing...

Now the plane has been repaired, and the pilot has returned to his comrades. Six years passed, the pilot calmed down a little and was not so sad, and at night he peered into the starry sky. He is still terribly worried, because the muzzle in the picture is left without a strap, what if the lamb eats the rose? And then it begins to seem that all the stars in the sky are crying. Suddenly the flower is no longer there, then everything changes. What a pity that no adult will ever feel how important this is.

You have read a summary of the fairy tale "The Little Prince". In the section of our website you can familiarize yourself with the presentation of other famous works.

It must be said that the author actually made the drawings in the book with his own hand, and they became as famous as the fairy tale itself. You must understand that these drawings are not only illustrations, but an organic part of the entire work, because both the author and the characters talk about these very drawings and even have some debates about them.

The magnificent drawings in the fairy tale “The Little Prince,” a summary of which you could read above, break down the boundaries that divide readers along linguistic lines and turn into part of a unique vocabulary that everyone understands.