Memories of the rose of Consuelo de Saint Exupéry

About the book

The rose from “The Little Prince” tells us the intimate and unknown life of its author: the posthumous autobiography of Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry

– The famous rose presented as proud and stubborn is inspired by the figure of Consuelo Saucín (later Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry)
– 80 years have passed since the launch of “The Little Prince”, the most translated non-religious book in history
– This book was written two years after the disappearance of the aviator Saint-Exupéry in 1944 during a mission in World War II
– The work, which never saw the light of day during the author’s lifetime, was published for the first time in France in 2000, when the remains of the pilot’s Lightning P38 were found.
– This is the sixth title from the Espinas publishing house that seeks to recover the space of forgotten and invisible writers due to their condition as women.

Madrid. April 13, 2023. Now, 80 years have passed since the release of “The Little Prince”, the intimate and unknown life of its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, finally sees the light in Spain thanks to the young publishing house Espinas , an independent label whose mission is to rescue and give light to the work of writers made invisible by history due to their condition as women. “Memories of the Rose” was published for the first and last time in France in 2000, now it returns to the shelves accompanied by the prologue by the activist against sexist violence Pamela Paciano, author of the monologue ‘Not only do the blows hurt’.

Because “Memories of the Rose” does not talk about blows, but it does talk about pain. Love, passion, heartbreak, sadness and waiting… Ingredients of the autobiography of the Salvadoran Consuelo Saucín, wife of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and a relevant character in his masterpiece, “The Little Prince”. The writer turned it into the rose of her story: “And the little prince, all confused, went to look for a watering can to serve fresh water to the flower. And that’s how he began to torture him with his somewhat whiny vanity,” says the Little Prince, “the flowers are weak. They are naive. They prevent themselves as best they can. “They think they are terrible with their thorns.” Consuelo, in her work, explains how “later, she knew that the flower was me, a very proud flower.”

This is one of the excerpts that gives shape to what was her experience as the wife of this pilot and writer, an ambitious man, eager for adventure, a flying knight and a frustrated writer. A genius devoured by his character, which will serve, in turn, to forge his fame. But Consuelo, who experienced it firsthand, even leaving aside her own career to support that of her husband (her Tonio), was unjustly excluded from the story.

So much so that Consuelo wrote this book two years after the disappearance, in 1944, of the aviator Saint-Exupéry during a mission in World War II from which he did not return. She never dared to publish them while she was alive. She died in 1979 without knowing anything about her whereabouts; To this day, her remains have not yet been found. However, in 1988, a fisherman in Marseille found a bracelet with two names engraved on it: Consuelo and Antoine. Two years later, in 2000, a diver found the remains of the pilot’s Lightning P38 on the island of Riou.

It was then that Consuelo’s secretary and executor, José Martínez Fructuoso, took a step forward to “return her to the exact place she had had next to the person who wrote that she had built her life on that love.” For Alicia de la Fuente, editor of the label, “with this biography we see how the petals of the rose of “The Little Prince” fell a long time ago, but today we can show its thorns.”

Because, as many times in the history of women, the flower must remain immobilized by its roots, staying still, waiting. But what do these waits mean in the life of a passionate, restless and longing woman? A torment. A searing pain that will mark her life as an inevitable condemnation. This book is more than a memoir, it is an honest and desperate cry from an author condemned to oblivion: the other side of the coin of success, represented in that flower that she also had to wait for the return of her prince. “How could I be useful? What was my immediate duty? “Wait, wait, wait, always wait…” Consuelo writes in his work.

Because although Consuelo’s work never saw the light in favor of her husband’s, her life did serve as a source of inspiration for the author: her book ‘Night Flight’ (with which she won the Femina Prize) was born from a Antoine’s love letter to Consuelo and in ‘Land of Men’ you can read: “I remember my wife’s eyes again. I’ll never see anything else besides those eyes. They ask”.

Editorial Espinas publishes “Memorias de la rosa” (19.95 euros) after more than 20 years in oblivion and with a new translation by Lola Rodríguez and a prologue by Pamela Palenciano, activist against sexist violence and author of the monologue ‘No only the blows hurt.’ In bookstores from April 15.

Review

Memories of the Rose, by Consuelo de Saint Exupéry

Consuelo de Saint Exupéry was the wife of the famous French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. In this book, published posthumously in 2000, Consuelo narrates her life with Antoine, from when they met in Buenos Aires in 1930 until his disappearance in 1944 during an air mission.

Consuelo de Saint Exupéry was not a conventional woman. Born in El Salvador in 1901, she was an artist, an adventurer and a rebel. She was married three times, had several lovers and suffered from several illnesses. Her relationship with Antoine was intense, passionate and stormy. They loved and betrayed each other, they separated and reconciled, they were inspired and jealous.

In Memories of the Rose, Consuelo offers us a unique and moving testimony of her marriage to Antoine. She tells us about her travels around the world, her encounters with famous people such as Charles Lindbergh or Ernest Hemingway, her experiences in war and resistance, her personal crises and her moments of happiness.

But above all, it reveals the origin and meaning of The Little Prince, Antoine’s masterpiece. Consuelo was the muse that inspired the author to create the blonde boy and his rose. She was the rose that Antoine carefully cared for and then abandoned for his dreams of glory. She was the rose that he suffered for her absence and that waited for him until the end.

Memories of the Rose is a book that shows us the human and vulnerable side of one of the most admired writers of the 20th century. It is also a tribute to an extraordinary woman who lived an unforgettable love story.