I was unsure how to rate this. It's not a perfect book by any means. The main reason I'm giving it 5 stars is that I'm a "The Little Prince" tragic and this book gave me a special insight to "The Little Prince" and made me think about it in ways I hadn't before. It didn't ruin it for me.

If you aren't into "The Little Prince" or any of de Saint-Exupery's other works, I can see why this may fall a little flat. On its own, this is a beautiful romantic story. It's competently told. Consuelo is not a bad writer. It is the story of a woman who falls for an aviator (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) and their difficult relationship. She is a woman who can clearly think for herself but she has chosen to play the wife of an aviator who later shows himself to be unfaithful to her - and she is aware of it. How she thinks this through and why she makes certain decisions is interesting.

However, against the background of de Saint-Exupery's other works such as "The Little Prince", I think it has particular impact. Antoine is celebrated as a children's author and depicts a blonde haired prince who leaves behind a rose he loves beyond all else as he roams among the planets. The rose is Consuelo.

Antoine was a curly, blonde haired man.

However, the story Consuelo does not depict the naive and childish prince that many loved in the childhood story. (Though he must have been charming as he got many a woman!) He certainly seemed to know what he was doing.

Consuelo depicts a strong and controlling man who cheated on her, and who swore he loved "his rose" ... but was that emotional manipulation to keep her in her place?

Or perhaps he was just not sure of his emotions? Maybe he could not decide?

Oh, the unreliability of a narrator!

It is interesting that there is always more than one side to the story. I still love "The Little Prince". But it is hard to look at the story without remembering the rose was not nearly as two-dimensional as depicted. In "The Little Prince" she is proud, vain and insecure, fiercely but uselessly defending herself with her thorns.

This tale of the rose shows a very different side of the rose.

ترچمه کتاب به نام "خاطرات گل سرخ" بصورت کتابی مجزا در گودریدرز ثبت شده
شرح زندگی آنتوان اگزوپری براساس نوشته های کنسوئلو همسر آرژانتینی (گواتمالایی) اش که حدود 20 سال پس از مرگ کنسوئلو منتشر گردیده است
جهت معرفی بیشتر جنبه های مختلف زندگی اگزوپری کتاب خوبیه و علاوه بر ماجراجویی با شخصیت بی بندوبار، زنباره و عیاش نویسنده مشهورآشنا میشیم

Poor Consuelo.

The story of a terrible yet oddly beautiful marriage. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry may be the world's worst husband, and Consuelo the most passive, submissive wife, but the writing here is strangely intoxicating and touches on the truth about many relationships and their imbalances and abuses. Raises a lot of questions about unconditional love and if love is even a smart idea in the first place.

I'm not sure where to start. I'm conflicted. I love how easy and flowing the writing was. I'm sure that her other books must be the same but I'm conflicted in the following:

How could this be a "love story"? While everyone has their own definition of love I fail to see how being taken advantage, abandoned so many times, and cheated on could be considered love.

I'm sorry Consuelo had to suffer that type of love.

Their life together and apart was an interesting comment on life in France during the 1930s and 1940s - living in the city, in the country. Quite rambling, stream of consciousness writing. It wasn't clear to me if this is a life "remembered" or as events unfolded, more like a diary.

I read this book years ago and what I most enjoyed in it was the fact that gives us a tottally different perspective on the author, his somehow "excessive" personnality, larger than life, and the difficult balance of his and Consuelo's feelings and relationship.

For those who like to understand the "background" of writer's lifes and their loved ones!

Maria Carmo

A beautifully written love letter. The truth was painful, but human hearts are really a mysterious place.

It was amazing in that it made me think (really think) about the love between a husband and wife (especially 2 creative people in a relationship) and how love transcends all hardships, personality quirks, flaws, etc. I love books that make me think!!!!!

NO SPOILERS!!!

Having finished the book, I have added a few comments at the end.....

I am reading The Tale of the Rose: The Love Story Behind The Little Prince, and opposite to all the negative reviews given here at GR, I like it. I like it A LOT!!!! I am shocked and dismayed and annoyed by what I read in the GR reviews! First of all, the prose is GOOD. People complain about the translation since Consuelo wrote it in French, yet she is originally Spanish speaking. I don't agree at all! What I will say is that these people who have written the reviews do not really love The Little Prince. Why? Because you recognize the similarity in prose style, in how Antoine and Consuelo thought. The prose is simple, plainspoken and full of naive thoughts, and yet it says so much. THAT is its charm.

"His (Antoine's) images had extraordinary charm, and there was a wild note of truth to even his most fantastical stories." (page 17)

And then the reviewers think Consuelo is weak and a doormat. Forget that! She loved Antoine and she KNEW what she was getting herself into when she chose marriage to him. She says:

"I was being offered the role of a wife in a play. Was I right for the part? Did I really want to play it?" (page 34)

She LOVED him. She chose to marry him. She was willing to take the bad with the good.

I am halfway through the book. I cannot keep my mouth shut any more. I assume Antoine is going to get even more mean and crazy and wound up in his own world. People with daring and imaginative qualities are NOT easy to live with, but a life with them brings marvelous experiences too! Life will be intense and never dull. I believe they fit each other.

Let me backtrack a bit and show you how they met, one evening at a party, and what they said to each other:

"I beg your pardon," Crémieux replied. "I forgot to introduce you. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and aviator. He'll show you Buenos Aires from above, and the stars too. You see, he adores the stars."

"I don't like to fly," I said. "I don't like things that go fast. I don't like seeing too many faces at once. And I want to leave." (the party)

"But faces have nothing to do with stars!" the dark-haired man (Antoine) cried.

"You think our heads are so distant from the star?"

"Oh," he exclaimed in surprise. "You have stars in your head, do you?

"I have yet to meet a man who has seen my true stars," I confessed with a touch of melancholy. "But we are talking nonsense. I told you. I don't like to fly. Even walking to fast makes my head spin." (page 13-14)

But were they talking nonsense? Do you see the similarity in this and The Little Prince?

I am going out on a limb b/c I haven't finished the book yet. I am just so darn annoyed about all the negative things said about the couple and the book. I thoroughly enjoy it. Jeez, I am annoyed!

You really get to know who these two people are, both Consuelo and Antoine. If you want a fairy tale, pick up a book by Grimm.

I just had to spurt a little bit.

***************************************************************

On completion:

Who ever said love was easy?

I like the prose style of this book. I like its simplicity. And I like and sometimes hate the characters. Yes, both. If The Little Prince speaks to you, you will love this book as I do. Antoine was one hell of a person to live with. To read and understand this book you must be willing to change your time-frame and not judge the people by modern standards. Women today think you are a doormat if you act as Consuelo did! Even Consuelo's friends could scarcely understand her love for a man who hurt her as no one else did. Antoine could not live with nor could he live without Consuelo. The same is true for Consuelo's feelings for her husband! This book should be read with The Little Prince.

P.S. If you are going to be driven crazy by Antoine's terrible behavior, if you are going to logically get frustrated by Consuelo's inability to protect herself, then maybe this book isn't for you. I think people are crazy and do illogical things. The middle road is oh so comfortable, but you miss out on a lot that life offers.

Wow, such a detailed story of a relationship on which so much contradictory material had been previously written. It really exposed the difficulties of being a "good" wife when your spouse comes from a different mind set, and how the ethos of a time period influences people. Highly readable book if you like romance, history of WWII, ethical dilemmas.

Eine faszinierende Liebesgeschichte, erzählt aus der Sicht der stets wartenden, oft verlassenen Pilotenfrau, deren Rolle im Leben des berühmten Autors zu Unrecht unterschätzt wird. So wie sie schreibt wird deutlich: Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry ist mehr als die Rose des kleinen Prinzen! Dieses Buch hat meine Sicht auf Antoine de Saint-Exupéry total verändert...