Come to think of it, a lot remains unexplained in Saint-Exupéry’s Petit Prince. Maybe the allegorical quality of the work makes it so timeless. This Canadian author has written a beautiful reply to the (hopefully autobiographical!) narrator’s exhortation to tell him if you hear from the prince. In the original, the title is Le Petit Prince retrouvé. Jean-Pierre Davidts characterises the traveller from the planet with the arrogant-loving rose, three volcanoes, and baobab seeds, and his pointed questions and requests ‘dessine-moi un mouton’, so well that you are really happy and warm at heart to hear from the little guy. He does talk quite a bit more than in the original. Davidts continues the story by creating a homage of kindness, in his own voice, but without forgetting how much he owes to the original. He meets, among others, an ecologist and a statistician. You will be happy to know, I am sure, that the sheep is doing well, too. Not all shall be revealed here. The work is not as much serious literature (being so dependent on intertextuality?), but it is a fitting description of our times’ madness.
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