Night Flight

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

(Night Flight) is considered one of the classics of 20th-century French literature and one of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s most important works. Upon its release in 1931, with an introduction by André Gide, it secured a prominent place for its author alongside major writers of his generation such as Malraux and Camus. The novel achieved great success that has not diminished with time, selling over six million copies worldwide. In this novel, the author of (The Little Prince) poses the fundamental question: what is more valuable than human life, and what is worth sacrificing it for? With his poetic language and intelligent, epic narrative, he portrays humanity's struggle to transcend itself in search of meaning, through the adventure of night flying in the early days of commercial aviation at the turn of the 20th century. Perhaps the novel's importance lies in what André Gide emphasized in his introduction: "What I particularly admire in this moving story is its nobility, for we know all too well cases of weakness and despair, and the fall of man, and literature in our day is highly skilled at exposing them, but the transcendence of self, which ambitious will succeeds in achieving, is precisely what we need to be depicted for us."