Reviews
The feeling of being high in the sky must be different from sitting in an airplane seat versus sitting in the cockpit. I’ve never piloted a plane, but I imagined it as I read this novel. Night Flight is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s second novel, published in 1931. It won the Prix Femina that same year, includes a tribute by the great writer André Gide as its foreword, and was so popular that it was made into a film in 1933. Commercial aviation was just beginning in the 1920s, and night flights
I experienced Saint-Exupéry’s Night Flight in a first-edition, re-cover edition with a luxurious velvet hardcover. It felt like holding a work of art. The velvet texture and finely embossed title add a sense of luxury, and the book’s exterior is elegant in its own right. Its refined, rich-looking cover color and texture made it even more appealing to me. It is certainly worth keeping as part of a collection. But my anticipation for this work went beyond its appearance. André Gide wrote the
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Night flight
Rivière, head of the Buenos Aires airmail service, is waiting for the mail planes flying through the night. The weather is clear, and the planes are landing safely and on time. He pushed ahead with night flights despite strong opposition in order to survive competition from other forms of transportation, such as trains and ships. The other planes return safely to the airmail office, but Fabien’s flight from Patagonia is caught in a sudden storm and goes adrift. Rivière tries to rescue Fabien, but worsening weather leaves him powerless. If Fabien disappears, the entire night-flight business could suffer a serious blow. Fabien has only one hour and 40 minutes of fuel left. Will Fabien and Rivière get through this crisis safely? Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s second novel, considered a masterpiece of aviation literature, asks, ‘What could be more valuable than a human life?’ through the pilots who risk their lives in the dark sky and Rivière, who urges them to fly again even after the worst accidents. Saint-Exupéry himself worked for a commercial airline and helped establish night routes, and the novel draws directly on that experience. In concise prose, he depicts pilot Fabien struggling in a stormy night sky surrounded by darkness and Rivière, responsible for the entire flight operation, as they wrestle with the values of individual sacrifice and the progress of humanity as a whole.
Korean title: 야간 비행
Korean author: 앙투안 드 생텍쥐페리
Korean publisher: 코너스톤
ISBN-13: 9791190669610
Reviews
The feeling of being high in the sky must be different from sitting in an airplane seat versus sitting in the cockpit. I’ve never piloted a plane, but I imagined it as I read this novel. Night Flight is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s second novel, published in 1931. It won the Prix Femina that same year, includes a tribute by the great writer André Gide as its foreword, and was so popular that it was made into a film in 1933. Commercial aviation was just beginning in the 1920s, and night flights
I experienced Saint-Exupéry’s Night Flight in a first-edition, re-cover edition with a luxurious velvet hardcover. It felt like holding a work of art. The velvet texture and finely embossed title add a sense of luxury, and the book’s exterior is elegant in its own right. Its refined, rich-looking cover color and texture made it even more appealing to me. It is certainly worth keeping as part of a collection. But my anticipation for this work went beyond its appearance. André Gide wrote the
