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Gorgeous writing that transcends time and space.
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Airman's Odyssey
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Three classic adventure stories, reminders of both the romance and the reality of the pioneer era of Night Flight; Wind, Sand and Stars; and Flight to Arras. Introduction by Richard Bach. Translated by Lewis Galantière and Stuart Gilbert.
456 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1942
This edition
- Format
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456 pages, Paperback
- Published
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November 5, 1984 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
- ISBN
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9780156037334
- ASIN
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0156037335
- Language
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English
About the author
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People best know French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his fairy tale The Little Prince (1943).
He flew for the first time at the age of 12 years in 1912 at the Ambérieu airfield and then determined to a pilot. Even after moving to a school in Switzerland and spending summer vacations at the château of the family at Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens in east, he kept that ambition. He repeatedly uses the house at Saint-Maurice.
Later, in Paris, he failed the entrance exams for the naval academy and instead enrolled at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1921, Saint-Exupéry, stationed in Strasbourg, began serving in the military. He learned and forever settled his career path as a pilot. After leaving the service in 1923, Saint-Exupéry worked in several professions but in 1926 went back and signed as a pilot for Aéropostale, a private airline that from Toulouse flew mail to Dakar, Senegal. In 1927, Saint-Exupéry accepted the position of airfield chief for Cape Juby in southern Morocco and began his first book, a memoir, called Southern Mail and published in 1929.
He then moved briefly to Buenos Aires to oversee the establishment of an Argentinean mail service, returned to Paris in 1931, and then published Night Flight, which won instant success and the prestigious Prix Femina. Always daring Saint-Exupéry tried from Paris in 1935 to break the speed record for flying to Saigon. Unfortunately, his plane crashed in the Libyan Desert, and he and his copilot trudged through the sand for three days to find help. In 1938, a second plane crash at that time, as he tried to fly between city of New York and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, seriously injured him. The crash resulted in a long convalescence in New York.
He published Wind, Sand and Stars, next novel, in 1939. This great success won the grand prize for novel of the academy and the national book award in the United States. Saint-Exupéry flew reconnaissance missions at the beginning of the Second World War but went to New York to ask the United States for help when the Germans occupied his country. He drew on his wartime experiences to publish Flight to Arras and Letter to a Hostage in 1942.
Later in 1943, Saint-Exupéry rejoined his air squadron in northern Africa. From earlier plane crashes, Saint-Exupéry still suffered physically, and people forbade him to fly, but he insisted on a mission. From Borgo, Corsica, on 31 July 1944, he set to overfly occupied region. He never returned.
He flew for the first time at the age of 12 years in 1912 at the Ambérieu airfield and then determined to a pilot. Even after moving to a school in Switzerland and spending summer vacations at the château of the family at Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens in east, he kept that ambition. He repeatedly uses the house at Saint-Maurice.
Later, in Paris, he failed the entrance exams for the naval academy and instead enrolled at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1921, Saint-Exupéry, stationed in Strasbourg, began serving in the military. He learned and forever settled his career path as a pilot. After leaving the service in 1923, Saint-Exupéry worked in several professions but in 1926 went back and signed as a pilot for Aéropostale, a private airline that from Toulouse flew mail to Dakar, Senegal. In 1927, Saint-Exupéry accepted the position of airfield chief for Cape Juby in southern Morocco and began his first book, a memoir, called Southern Mail and published in 1929.
He then moved briefly to Buenos Aires to oversee the establishment of an Argentinean mail service, returned to Paris in 1931, and then published Night Flight, which won instant success and the prestigious Prix Femina. Always daring Saint-Exupéry tried from Paris in 1935 to break the speed record for flying to Saigon. Unfortunately, his plane crashed in the Libyan Desert, and he and his copilot trudged through the sand for three days to find help. In 1938, a second plane crash at that time, as he tried to fly between city of New York and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, seriously injured him. The crash resulted in a long convalescence in New York.
He published Wind, Sand and Stars, next novel, in 1939. This great success won the grand prize for novel of the academy and the national book award in the United States. Saint-Exupéry flew reconnaissance missions at the beginning of the Second World War but went to New York to ask the United States for help when the Germans occupied his country. He drew on his wartime experiences to publish Flight to Arras and Letter to a Hostage in 1942.
Later in 1943, Saint-Exupéry rejoined his air squadron in northern Africa. From earlier plane crashes, Saint-Exupéry still suffered physically, and people forbade him to fly, but he insisted on a mission. From Borgo, Corsica, on 31 July 1944, he set to overfly occupied region. He never returned.
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Community Reviews
Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 28 votes)
5 stars
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28 reviews All reviews
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Well, this is three books actually. Some of it is three star worthy, some of it four or five stars...
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Exceptional
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Was a disappointment after Little Prince. He writes well, but seems to wander to the minor points and drop engrossing story lines without finishing them while focusing on minor bits. Good prose, meh storytelling.
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This edition contains three St. Exupery books: Flight to Arras; Wind, Sand and Stars; and Night Flight. All three are memoirs of some of St. Exupery's adventures as a pilot assigned to postal mailing routes during the early days of flight.
Wind, Sand and Stars is the most philosophical memoir in the collection whereas Night Flight and Flight to Arras are more exciting. St. Exupery certainly led an action-packed life, but what's more amazing is his ability to remain thoughtful and creative even while stranded in the desert or captured by bedouins. His writing may be fun for those who crave adventure but it's also a real treat for any student of human nature to read St. Exupery's profound self-examinations and thoughts about life.
Wind, Sand and Stars is the most philosophical memoir in the collection whereas Night Flight and Flight to Arras are more exciting. St. Exupery certainly led an action-packed life, but what's more amazing is his ability to remain thoughtful and creative even while stranded in the desert or captured by bedouins. His writing may be fun for those who crave adventure but it's also a real treat for any student of human nature to read St. Exupery's profound self-examinations and thoughts about life.
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I was let down; I found my copy in an old used bookstore in Kalisbell, MT. As a HUGE The Little Prince fan, I was waiting for Saint-Exupery to live up to my expectations and I just didn't like it. If anything, this book was written for the "grownups".
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This comprises Wind, Sand, and Stars; Night Flight; and Flight to Arras. Of the three I found Night Flight the weakest. Saint-Exupery's personal philosophy is quixotic and compelling when he's writing about himself, but doesn't have the same level of animation when applied to fictional characters (even if those characters are, perhaps, thinly veiled self-inserts). Wind, Sand, and Stars is rambling but full of moments of the sublime; Flight to Arras is riveting and angry and trying, somehow, to find hope in defeat, and if I think it doesn't quite succeed that doesn't mean I don't respect the effort.
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These books, and other writings of de Saint-Exupery, have informed my life. I read them first for university French Lit class, and they still have pride of place on my bookshelf 52 years later. Mandatory reading and re-reading for the development (and maintenance) of one's humanity, one's humility, and one's capacity for awe.
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