El principito
One of the best first novels in Spanish: short sentences, simple words and a story many learners already know in English, which makes it easy to follow without a dictionary.
What it's about
A pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara desert and meets a small boy with golden hair who asks him to draw a sheep. The boy is a prince from a tiny asteroid, where he left behind a proud and beautiful rose. On his journey to Earth he visited other asteroids, each with one adult living alone: a king with no subjects, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman counting stars, a lamplighter and a geographer. On Earth a fox teaches him the book's most famous lesson about friendship and responsibility. Short and gentle, it's a story for children that adults read differently.
Resumen en español fácil
Tap any underlined word for its meaning
Un piloto tiene un accidente en el desierto del Sahara. Allí conoce a un niño pequeño que le pide: «Dibújame un cordero». Es el principito, que viene de un asteroide muy pequeño donde dejó una rosa. Antes de llegar a la Tierra, visitó otros planetas con personas adultas muy extrañas. En la Tierra, un zorro le enseña algo importante: «Lo esencial es invisible a los ojos».
Main characters
- The little prince — a boy from a tiny asteroid who travels from planet to planet
- The pilot — the narrator, stranded in the Sahara
- The rose — the proud flower the prince loves and left behind
- The fox — teaches the prince what it means to «tame» someone
- The snake — the creature the prince meets when he first lands on Earth
How to read it in Spanish
One of the best first books in Spanish: short chapters, simple sentences and a story many people already know. Most Spanish editions are translations from French, so the Spanish is neutral and easy to follow.
Where to read it
The original French text is in the public domain in many countries, but the Spanish translations are still under copyright. Buy or borrow a Spanish edition; libraries almost always have it.
