Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Stuart Gilbert Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Night Flight
Book Review: Night Flight
Summary: 5 Stars
Often called a poet in prose, Saint-Exupery is also credited with having described flight better than anyone before (or since). When I first read this beautiful book, I could physically feel the sensations of flying as he described them. His lyrical descriptions of an open cockpit bi-plane in contact with the elements showed me new perspectives not only of flight, but of the human condition I could never have imagined. His writing is both vivid and sensitive. The depth and beauty of his insights into humanity is balanced by the well paced action of the plot. One of the best crafted short novels I have ever read. Prabably the most beautifully written book I have read to date.Book Review: Night Flight (Vol de Nuit) - Antoine de St. Exupéry
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: Night Flight- so/so for me
Summary: 2 Stars
I enjoyed parts of it. For my own taste, he spent too much time in introspection, slow-moving thought, and losing the story line. For others it might be a brilliant psychlogical book, but I read it as a pilot looking for interesting perspectives on flight and was a bit disappointed.Book Review: Prelude to Citadel
Summary: 5 Stars
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, Riviere fires an experienced dearly loved and well respected mechanic. Because the company auditor befriended a pilot, he forces the auditor to officially reprimand the pilot. Like Riviere, the auditor must have no heart if he is to save the lives of the men he loves.
Vincent Poirier, Dublin
Book Review: Searching something beyond individual happiness
Summary: 5 Stars
Night Flight is about passion. Rivière is the director of a postal company that is experimenting with Night Flights for the South American mail. He is able to extract the best out of his men to help him achieve a higher good, something beyond themselves. What is that something is up for grabs. But it definitely goes beyond individual happiness: it may have to do with the collective good, or with a vision of improving our society. In any case, for Rivière, it is something worth more than a human life, the life of Fabien (pilot from Patagonia) who dies in the middle of a storm because of believing in Rivière's vision.