Wind, Sand and Stars | 
|  | | | Title: | Wind, Sand and Stars | | Author: | Antoine de Saint-Exupery | | Publisher: | Harcourt | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 15 October, 1992 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0151970874 / 9780151970872 | | List Price: | $17.00 | | You Save: | $5.44 | | Amazon Price: | $11.56 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying. Translated by Lewis Galantière.
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Customer Reviews:
• "the Physical Drama Cannot Touch Us Until Someone Points Out Its Spiritual Sense." 19 June, 2008
Like many of his contemporaries, European aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944) was seeking the meaning of life in the post World War I world. He looked for it and often found it outside the bounds of quotidian existence. His job as a pilot for Aeropostale, the French air mail service, offered him a unique perspective as he encountered the elements up close and personal in small planes he guided over vast deserts, oceans and mountains, and through fog, storms and, in a memorable account, a cyclone. His survival depended upon a heightened awareness of nature's elements. His was a life lived large and he knew it; he pities the poor bureaucrat's confined existence; he pities even more the child who with the right "gardener" could become a prince or another Mozart but who is groomed rather to lead a circumscribed life.
His narrative never bogs as he connects the concrete elements of nature with abstract sentiments. He renders his adventures vividly, especially the climatic chapter in which he and his mechanic survive a crash in the Sahara with almost no provisions. A year after that, in 1936, he goes off to Spain and the Civil War to learn why it is that mankind reaches the flash point of war and willingly puts itself in harm's way. That experience and the lessons it divulges comprise the last chapter. Among his often surprising observations is the note on how wild geese flying overhead can stir domestic birds below.
The author speaks in the idiom of a masculine age and a self-assured European culture. The idiom is noticeable but does not diminish the vision or lyricism of the book. I read the 1967 Harvest edition of the book that offered a translation that preserved the authentic voice of the book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2VZ11U5DXM8J5
• Timeless 02 September, 2008
I first read this book 45 years ago when flying was a dream for the future. Four plus decades and 3,500 hours of flying later the mastery of the author is still there.
Written in an era of open cockpit bi-planes the book captures the challenges of flying small planes in vast dark skies.
Highly recommended.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AI5OR1HSYXCCL
• A Wonderful Read And A Remarkable Work Of Literature 18 November, 2008
I recently read Exupery's Wind, Sand and Stars for a survey course in world literature. Initially, I was concerned that my lack of interest and background in aviation might limit my enjoyment of the book. However, that was not at all the case. Saint-Exupery masterfully brings to life the excitement of aviation and the craft of piloting. Through his series of essays, I gained a great deal of appreciation for his profession, its place in European culture and was captivated all the while. I would highly recommend Wind, Sand and Stars for both young and old.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3KZEGBTPH6MMF
• Flying Is Just The Cover Theme 07 August, 2008
Having just finished this book I feel compelled to write a review. This book is about more than flying and the adventures of the French Airmen of that era. This book is a flight into the author's views of self-fulfillment, discovery, and his opinions on humanity, specifically the willingness of certain individuals to sacrifice themselves for a cause. The author relates tales of near misses with disaster and the feelings of redemption and a renewed sense of appreciation for life. There are also times when he feels himself completely isolated from the world below since he is constantly teetering on the brink (naturally, flying was much more dangerous back then)
One theme that is constantly brought up by the author is the value of human relationships and the constant struggle to make them work. The only thing truly valuable we attain in life are hard-earned friendships, especially those that share a common sense of hardship.
Overall this is a very insightful book with a lot of truth. Flying is the cover theme, but the pages and words reveal so much more.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AOE0BPCBCDN21
• Suffused With The Romance Of Exotic Locations And Being Where The Wild Things Are 11 November, 2008
Translated from the French by Lewis Galantiere; an HBJ Modern Classic.
An historical oddity--an aviator from the early days of flight writes of flying, life and adventure in those days before instrumented flight and radar and auto-pilot. Crash-landing was apparently an accepted method of landing.
Its easy to see why Jimmy Buffett uses this title and references its author in the lyrics to the song "Far Side of the World". The book is suffused with the romance of exotic locations and flight and being where the wild things are.
Only the sometimes over-done sentimentalism of the time (or the translater?) pulls this down from "What a Classic!"
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2G3U6AM951P6D
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