Love letters between Saint-Exupéry and his wife published in Italy

For the first time in Italy, the love letters between Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Consuelo Suncín Sandoval have been published by Donzelli under the title "Il principe e la rosa. Lettere d’amore (1930-1944)". The correspondence, edited by French historian Alban Cerisier and translated by Lila Grieco, features a preface by Martine Martinez Fructuoso and Olivier D’Agay. Originally released in France in 2021 by Gallimard after years of disputes among heirs, the volume contains around 160 letters along with previously unpublished illustrations and images. The letters trace the passionate and tumultuous relationship between the celebrated author of "The Little Prince" and his Salvadoran wife, a writer, journalist, sculptor, and painter. Their meeting in Buenos Aires in September 1930 led to a whirlwind romance and marriage shortly after. Consuelo, a free spirit with a past including divorce and two marriages, was initially viewed with suspicion by Saint-Exupéry's noble family. She found solace among the surrealist circles and expatriates in Paris. The correspondence reveals the couple's shared imaginative world, which inspired the character of the rose in "The Little Prince". Saint-Exupéry perished in 1944 when his plane was shot down during a reconnaissance flight.