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WonderLiterature fact

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1943 novella 'The Little Prince' has been translated into about 600 languages and dialects, more than any other book except the Bible.

Publishing history

LanguageLiterature

The story behind the card

Saint-Exupéry, a French pilot and writer, wrote and illustrated the book in 1942 in the United States, where he lived in exile after the fall of France; much of it was written in a rented house on Long Island. It first appeared in New York in April 1943, in English and French, and reached French readers only after the Liberation, because the Vichy regime had banned his work. He never saw that: in July 1944 he disappeared on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean. By 2017 it had become the world's most translated non-religious book.

Türkçe oku
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry'nin 1943'te yayımlanan kısa romanı “Küçük Prens” 600 kadar dile ve lehçeye çevrildi. Kutsal Kitap dışında hiçbir kitap bu kadar çok dile çevrilmedi.

Fransız pilot ve yazar Saint-Exupéry, Fransa'nın yenilgisinden sonra sürgünde yaşadığı ABD'de kitabı 1942'de yazdı ve kendisi resimledi; büyük bölümünü Long Island'da kiraladığı bir evde yazdı. Kitap Nisan 1943'te New York'ta İngilizce ve Fransızca olarak çıktı. Vichy yönetimi eserlerini yasakladığı için Fransız okurlara ancak ülkenin kurtuluşundan sonra ulaşabildi. Yazar bunu göremedi: Temmuz 1944'te Akdeniz üzerinde bir keşif uçuşunda kayboldu. Kitap 2017'de, dinî olmayan kitaplar arasında dünyada en çok dile çevrilen eser olmuştu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The Little Prince
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