SAINT-EXUPERY, Antoine de
The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)
The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)
London: William Heinneman Ltd., 1944
Illustrated by SAINT-EXUPERY, Antoine de
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The Little Prince, written and drawn by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1944. First UK edition, first printing of the author's most successful work, telling "the story of a child, the little prince, who travels the universe gaining wisdom" (Britannica). 8vo. Pp. 91.
A unique, bespoke fine binding of Saint-Exupéry's popular tale for children and grown-ups alike
Closely resembling the publisher's original binding of the first edition, but not an exact facsimile. Sumptuously bound in full yellow Fine Goatskin leather, using the finest mill boards, with foil illustration depicting the Little Prince and title block to the front board, and blue foil title block to spine. New marbled endpapers, silk cane head and tail bands, as well as a golden silk marker ribbon have been added. The book itself has been stripped back to its original sections and resewn by hand using the finest linen thread.
A unique, open-spine clamshell slipcase has been created to house the book in a contrasting colour. This is made from grey board and covered in blue Colorado cloth and lined with soft suede.
The text block itself is in good overall condition having now been resewn by hand, with the spine nicely curved. The edges and pages show tanning, with some foxing to prelims and sporadically throughout, with the occasional thumb mark and small stain, as pictured, a small stamp underneath the title on the half-title page, and a few shallow creases to some page extremities. Else a clean, uninscribed example. Freshly rebound in full, yellow Fine Goatskin leather, and contained in a new, fine, open-spine clamshell case lined with suede, that allows the book's spine to be fully exposed on the shelf, while at the same time opening sideways, in order to protect the leather binding from excessive rubbing.
All in all, a fantastic opportunity to acquire a beautiful first UK edition of this beloved tale of searching for the meaning of life, rebound by the talented Paul Berry of The Abbey Bookbindery in Hampshire, England; a bindery steeped in the finest tradition of English craft bookbinding. C. S. Lewis said (not in reference to this title in particular) that "no book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally - and often far more - worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.". Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) is certainly one such book, which "has something of Hans Christian Andersen in it, something of Lewis Carroll and even, it may perhaps be said, a bit of John Bunyan. It is often lyrical… sometimes profound… However it is classified, The Little Prince has entered children's literature, in the manner of quite a few other such hard-to-define works in the preceding centuries" (Pierpont Morgan Library 224).
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