These compact hardbacks are cloth-bound, with matching coloured end papers, embossed gold and coloured blocking. These editions are admired by literature-lovers and the design savvy looking for reasonably priced, beautiful hardbacks to add to their collections. The Little Prince is a modern fable, and for readers far and wide both the title and the work have exerted a pull far in excess of the book’s brevity. Written and published first by Antoine de St-Exupéry in 1943, only a year before his plane disappeared on a reconnaissance flight, it is one of the world’s most widely translated books, enjoyed by adults and children alike.