Philosophy · Book club
The Little Prince book club questions
Here are 11 book club questions for The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. Copy them, print them, or bring them up one at a time.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote The Little Prince in New York in 1942, in exile from a France under occupation, and the book was published in French and English simultaneously in 1943, the year before he disappeared on a reconnaissance flight.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1943 · 1h 15m
Full summary and key takeaways →The 11 questions
- 1.
The fox says you are responsible forever for what you tame. What are the things in your life that you have tamed in this sense, and how does that responsibility sit with you?
- 2.
Saint-Exupéry's adults are each captured by a single obsession. Which of the adults on the prince's journey did you recognize most readily, and why?
- 3.
The book argues that adults have lost the capacity to see what is essential. Do you think that loss is inevitable, or is it possible to remain in the kind of attention the prince models?
- 4.
The rose is vain, demanding, and fragile — and the prince loves her anyway, because she is his. What does that say about what love actually is?
- 5.
The book is sometimes read as a meditation on wartime loss and exile. Does knowing the circumstances of its composition change how you read it?
- 6.
The pilot-narrator says that only children understood his drawing of the boa eating the elephant. What's the last time you felt that the adults around you weren't seeing something you saw clearly?
- 7.
The fox's ritual — returning at the same hour each day — creates anticipation and relationship. What rituals in your own life function this way?
- 8.
The book has been read as a children's book for 80 years. When you read it as an adult, what do you find that you think children don't access?
- 9.
Saint-Exupéry disappeared on a reconnaissance flight in 1944. Does knowing that the author didn't return from his own war change the book's ending for you?
- 10.
The little prince asks the pilot to draw him a sheep, and when the pilot draws a box with holes he says the sheep is inside. What does that exchange say about imagination and literalism?
- 11.
The book's critique of counting and categorizing as substitutes for real understanding applies beyond its immediate targets. Where do you see this operating in contemporary culture?
How to run the discussion
- Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
- Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
- Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
- Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.
Themes worth steering toward
If the conversation stalls, these are the threads that usually restart it.
Common questions
What are good book club questions for The Little Prince?
Here are 11 book club questions for The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, ordered to open easily and end somewhere worth arguing about. The strongest openers ask what each reader noticed rather than what they concluded, and the discussion usually turns on childhood and adulthood, love and loss, human nature.
How long should a book club discussion of The Little Prince last?
Most groups run 60 to 90 minutes of actual discussion. That is roughly six to eight questions, not all of them, so pick the ones that suit your group rather than working down the list in order.
What are the main themes in The Little Prince?
Childhood and adulthood, Love and loss, Human nature, Meaning, Loneliness. Those are the threads most likely to divide a room, which makes them the useful places to steer a discussion that has gone quiet.
Picking the next one? See books like The Little Prince or questions for other book club picks.
