What Is The Original French Version Of The Taming Quote In The Little Prince?

I still get a little thrill when I read lines from 'Le Petit Prince' in the original French — they feel different than any translation. If you want the authentic wording, start with a reputable French edition: look for Gallimard's printings (they've long been the standard publisher). A physical copy from a bookstore, library, or secondhand shop lets you see punctuation and phrasing exactly as Saint‑Exupéry wrote it. I like checking multiple printings if I can, because older editions sometimes have subtle typographical differences that are fun to spot. If you prefer digital, try Gallica (the Bibliothèque nationale de France's portal) and French Wikisource — after the work entered the public domain in many places, reliable transcriptions began appearing online. Google Books and Internet Archive also host scanned copies you can search fast; just use a short French phrase from the quote in quotation marks to find the page. For casual quoting, an e‑book (Kindle, Kobo) is handy because you can search the whole text instantly. Personally, I cross‑check any online quote against a scanned page so I don’t propagate a mistranslation or a mis‑punctuated line.

I still get a little spark when I think about finding old texts, and 'Le Petit Prince' is a special case. The short version is: it depends where you are. The book was published in 1943 and its author died in 1944, so in many countries the original French text entered the public domain on January 1, 2015. That means in those places you can legally download a PDF of the original French text from public-domain repositories. However, France is an exception because of a wartime extension that applied to authors declared 'mort pour la France'. That extension added 30 years to the usual copyright term, so in France the book remains under copyright until 2044. Also keep in mind that translations, annotated editions, and illustrated versions are often still copyrighted even where the French text is public domain. So a free PDF might exist legally in some countries but not in others, and many of the fancily illustrated scans online are likely infringing copies. If you want to be safe, check your country’s public domain rules (life+70 is common, with special cases), look for reputable sites like Project Gutenberg, Wikisource, or national library collections, or borrow an edition from your local library. For me, reading the original French still feels like a small pilgrimage—worth doing the right way.