A rare typescript of the classic French novella The Little Prince is expected to sell for $1.25 million in Abu Dhabi next month. One of only three in existence, the hand-corrected copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s tale about a pilot who meets a prince from a faraway planet is especially valuable for containing the first instance of the beloved line: “One only sees clearly with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.”
Previous drafts show Saint-Exupéry going back and forth trying out different versions of the phrase, a specialist at London rare book dealer Peter Harrington told The Guardian. Here, “you can actually witness the author making that breakthrough and writing that full sentence for the first time.”
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