St. Exupery's Other Books

As I loved The Little Prince, I thought I might also like Saint Exupery's other works. Namely: Wind, Sand and Stars (Terre de Hommes), Night Flight, Southern Mail, Flight to Arras.

The first one of these I read, Wind, Sand and Stars seemed to be quite dense at first, requiring a lot of re-reading - however I think this was just my own mind being a little preoccupied. All of these books focus on flights, usually those to transport mail or to discover new flight routes. There is a beautiful image in my head that gets evoked each time, of flying at night, just being able to see the horizon, and seeing the stars above. It reminds me of driving home in the country, that serene and humbling experience of feeling alone in a vast open space.

I can't fly a plane, and I don't fly often, so there is nothing here that need only interest pilots. Saint Exupery has a lot of existential/absurdist ideas concerning the meaning of friendship, love, freedom and these notions all come through in these works. He was someone in love with the sky, not making a particularly good or faithful husband, which a lot has been written about (including The Tale of the Rose, by his wife). So what we hear more about is his adoration of friends and comradeship.

One particularly nice story, in Wind, Sand and Stars involves a crashed pilot, walking across snow covered mountains in search of rescue. After each kilometre he has to stop, open up his shoes to deal with the swelling, and continue on as his feet gradually become more and more useless. What keeps him going is the thought that if he is missing, his wife will not get the insurance payout until they find his body. After finally making it home, the first thing he says (admired so much by Exupery) is "I swear that what I went through, no animal would have gone through."

Exupery is loves the triumph of the human spirit, and of the modernist consolations of existence which come from freedom, friendship and love. One reads these books and can't help but admire the pioneer in him. He is still very popular in France - there is a nice big picture of him in a hotel in Toulouse, which the owners only thought it semi-odd that I would wander in only to look at it. (I mention this to show how much I am fond of Saint Exupery, not to offhandedly mention that I was once on a trip).