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This is the front cover art for the book 'The Little Prince' written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and first published in 1943. The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Gallimard or the cover artist, Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Fair use of low-resolution image under terms of US Copyright law.

‘Little Prince’ discovery offers new insight

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
This is the front cover art for the book 'The Little Prince' written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and first published in 1943. The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Gallimard or the cover artist, Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Fair use of low-resolution image under terms of US Copyright law.
This is the front cover art for the book ‘The Little Prince’ written by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and first published in 1943. The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Gallimard or the cover artist, Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Fair use of low-resolution image under terms of US Copyright law.

PARIS (AP) – The only known draft pages of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic children’s book “The Little Prince” are on display at a Paris auction house, ahead of their sale this month.

The two fragile handwritten sheets, brimming with original musings and even a new character, were discovered two months ago in France in private hands.

They were either omitted or modified in the published version, but the previously unknown texts may shed valuable new light on the book’s real meaning.

The author, who wrote from New York during World War II, was known to be a pacifist. But Saint-Exupery expert Olivier Devers says the new material indicates it actually was “a book against war.”

The draft pages go to auction on May 16.

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