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Night Flight
by: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Stuart Gilbert

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.912
EAN: 9780156656054
ISBN: 0156656051
Label: Mariner Books
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 96
Publication Date: March 20, 1974
Publisher: Mariner Books
Sales Rank: 37365
Studio: Mariner Books

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the brave men who piloted night mail planes from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation. Preface by André Gide. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- A peek back at the aviation's dangerous roots
There already exist a dozen or more excellent reviews on this early aviation piece. I humbly add my thoughts.

This novel, written 1930ish by the famous author/flyer Antoine De Saint-Exupery, in the pioneering days of aviation, encompasses two stories playing out simultaneously:

1. In the cockpit of a night mail plane, flying out of Patagonia, Chile, over the Andes and towards points north. A primitive aircraft, with primitive radio, only dead-reckoning navigation, and no radar. The plane has become enclosed in an overwhelming storm system and the pilot is flying blind in complete blackness. The situation develops and becomes summarized in the following sentence from the story, " . . . a phantom ship that, as things were, struggled no longer to win a punctuality-bonus, but only to evade a penalty . . . the penalty of death."

2. On the ground in Buenos Aries, the director ... Read More

Rating:

- Prelude to Citadel
Written and published when Saint-Exupery was 31 years old, this short novel holds the seed of what was to become Saint-Ex's posthumous masterpiece, Citadel. The theme is leadership in a life and death command situation.

Night Flight is the story of Mr. Rivière (pronounced ree-vee-AIR) who oversees a number of pilots carrying mail in South America. The postal service is a lucrative but competive business and keeping planes grounded at night loses the company any speed advantage flight has over trains or ships. So they fly at night.

This evening, Rivière must deal with a night flight surprised by a storm. There is no hope. When Rivière sends men into the night, they are in death's embrace. There is no margin for error. Because he loves his men, he must rise above all concerns for their feelings and think only about their welfare. He loves them but cannot, must not, show it. For one act of negligence, ... Read More

Rating:

- Night Flight (Vol de Nuit) - Antoine de St. Exupéry
St. Exupéry was an early aviator who writes from his actual experiences flying over (and through) the Andes to open up new airmail routes. I purchased this book as a gift for a friend who is a pilot. I read the book a number of years ago in the original French. The story is a fine human drama in its own right. However, most impressive for me are the beautiful and poetic descriptions of early flight in fragile aircraft over a rugged but beautiful landscape, unequaled by any other author I have read. You will fly beside and with this author through a different world which is at once both detached and linked to all humanity below. Truly a remarkable little book.

Rating:

- Wonderful Chronicle of the Human Condition.
I have read Exupery's "The Little Prince." I am aware of his tragic 1944 death, just two years after writing this marvelous little book, while flying a solo reconoissance mission in support of the Allies, somewhere over the Mediterranean sea. The world lost a great literary and artistic talent, as well as a hero.

This is important context, because "Night Flight" serves to enhance St. Exupery's reputation, in my opinion, as one of the 20th century's great writers of the human condition. He covers several topics in this short book that are central to understanding the human experience:

- being alone in the dark.
- being alone and lost.
- being "alone" in a villiage, or alone even while surrounded by people, or when trying to talk to your husband or wife.
- the yoke of obligation and duty
- the benefit and sacrifices of the one vs. the many
- disfunctional leadership and ... Read More

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