Broken Base: Which English translation is better, Katherine Woods' which was in use from 1943 to 2001 or Richard Howard's more recent one that replaced Woods'?
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Making a not so small effort to see a Christian allegory in it, the Little Prince is Jesus, the Fox is a willing convert to faith (possibly St. Francis of Assisi, since he has a wolf totem, plus the fox is faithful and provides comic relief). The Snake is THE Serpent from the Garden of Eden. The Sheep in the box is an allegory — and Jesus talked in parables and metaphors, including one about a lost sheep, plus he was referred to as the Good Shepherd. The Rose is Saint-Exupéry's wife — or the good seeds from the parable. The baobab trees are the bad seeds that Jesus talked about in the same parable.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It was a bestseller in France, but its biggest outreach of popularity was its international release, to the point it remains the third bestselling work of fiction of all time. As far as French titles go, the book has received more love than the works of Dumas and Hugo.
In Argentina, El Principito is sold in every newsstand and supermarket, not just bookstores.
Harsher in Hindsight: The book ends with the Prince disappearing after getting a possibly fatal snake bite. Saint-Exupéry himself disappeared on a mission during World War II, with no conclusive proof about his fate.
Even harsher taking into account the claim that the author was shot down...by a German pilot who loved the book and shared that love with his children. He said he broke down crying when he learned he had killed, of all people, the author of such a beloved book (Saint-Exupéry's plane remnants were discovered in 1998 in a completely different location, so it's highly probable he wasn't the fighter shot down by the German after all, but the poor German still went to his grave believing so.)
Magnificent Bastard: The snake is one of the most enigmatic and devious characters to appear in children's literature. A being who only speaks in riddles, the snake serves the purpose of embodying the inevitability of death in the book, tempting the Prince into accepting his bite and his poison with the assurance it will not hurt. Though seen by the narrator as an evil and despicable creature, the snake is charismatic and affable in a Don't Fear the Reaper sense; even his temptation to the Prince is gentle.
Memetic Mutation: Advice for the Prince Explanation A post on the subreddit r/thomastheplankengine (where people recreate memes they see in their dreams) showed Grunkle Stan telling the Little Prince to start counterfeiting money. This resulted in a brief meme of editing fictional characters on the book's cover and have them give him terrible life advice.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: According to the author, it's a philosophical book in the guise of a children's book. Then again, there's nothing saying that a philosophy book can't be for children. It's a book about the loss of innocence that accompanies growth, which tackles topics such as codependency and politics, and that ends with the death of the titular character. But with a kid on the cover and several cartoonish illustrations, some people might mistake it as a perfect book for their eight-year-olds to read. Which might be understandable also if your first exposure to the story was via the '70s anime, which is unabashedly made for kids.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The '70s anime series arguably is better known in the West than in Japan, where it was canceled early with four of its episodes unaired.
Magnificent Bastard (1974 musical): The self-styled "snake in the grass" retains the affable sincerity of his literary counterpart and takes advantage of the live-action medium to become far more theatrical. As portrayed by Bob Fosse, the snake tempts the Prince by means of an elaborate song-and-dance number, during which he cheerfully implies he's Satan himself, and yet never once does he present himself as anything but wishing well for the Prince.
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