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{{about|the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry|the movie based on the book|Night Flight (1933 film)|the Italian opera based on the book's story|Volo di notte}}
{{Short description|1931 novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}
{{about|the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry|the film based on the book|Night Flight (1933 film)|the Italian opera based on the book's story|Volo di notte}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:NightFlight.jpg|thumb|First UK edition]]
| name = Night Flight
| image = NightFlight.jpg
| image_size =
| border =
| alt =
| caption = First UK edition
| author = [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig = Vol de nuit
| orig_lang_code = fr
| title_working =
| translator = [[Stuart Gilbert]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = France
| language = French
| series =
| release_number =
| subject =
| genre = [[Fiction]]
| set_in = Argentina
| publisher =
| publisher2 =
| pub_date = 1931
| english_pub_date = 1932
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| awards =
| isbn =
| isbn_note =
| oclc =
| dewey =
| congress =
| preceded_by = <!-- for books in a series -->
| followed_by = <!-- for books in a series -->
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}


'''''Night Flight''''' ([[French language|French]] title: '''''Vol de Nuit''''') is the second [[novel]] by [[France|French]] writer and aviator [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]. It was first published in 1931 and became an international bestseller.<ref>''Saint Exupéry: A Biography'', [[Stacy Schiff]], pg.210</ref>
'''''Night Flight''''', published as ''Vol de nuit'' in 1931, was the second novel by French writer and aviator [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]. It went on to become an international bestseller and a film based on it appeared in 1933.<ref>''Saint Exupéry: A Biography'', [[Stacy Schiff]], pg.210</ref> Its popularity, which only grew with the ideological conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s, was due to its master theme of sacrificing personal considerations to a cause in which one believes.


== Background ==
== History ==
⚫
The book is based on Saint-Exupéry's experiences as an airmail pilot and as a director of the [[Aeroposta Argentina]] airline, based in [[Buenos Aires]]. The characters were inspired by the people Saint-Exupéry knew while working in South America. Notably, the character of Rivière was based on the airline's operations director [[Didier Daurat]].


With an introduction by [[André Gide]], the novel of only 23 short chapters was published by [[Éditions Gallimard]] in 1931 and was awarded the [[Prix Femina]] for that year. In 1932 it was translated into English by [[Stuart Gilbert]] as ''Night Flight'' and was made a [[Book of the Month Club]] choice in the United States. In the following year, Saint-Exupéry's friend [[Jacques Guerlain]] used the book's title as the name for his scent ''Vol de Nuit''. The bottle was a blend of glass and metal in Art Deco style with a propeller motif.<ref>[https://www.my-origines.com/gb/vol-de-nuit-43712830.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-24BhB_EiwA1ZOx8t1Q0ytv292OMswR5_liwvRfMvrFzdtAQ0iRwKD8AwCUcKQBDV11_hoCSXAQAvD_BwE My Origines]</ref>
⚫
The book is based on Saint-Exupéry's experiences as an airmail pilot and as a director of the [[Aeroposta Argentina]] airline, based in [[Argentina]]. The characters were also loosely based on people Saint-Exupéry knew in South America. Notably, the character of Rivière was inspired by [[Didier Daurat]], operations director of the [[Aéropostale (aviation)|Aéropostale]]. More details can be found in Saint-Exupéry's 1939 memoir, ''[[Wind, Sand and Stars]]''.


In 1933 [[Metro Goldwyn Mayer]] adapted the novel very loosely as [[Night Flight (1933 film)|a film]], which brought the author to the attention of a far wider public.<ref>Antoine de Saint-Exupéry [http://www.antoinedesaintexupery.com/vol-de-nuit-1931 webpage]</ref> In 1979 a short television feature was made by [[Desmond Davis]], titled both ''Spirit of Adventure'' and ''Night Flight''.<ref>Jerry Robert, Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, Scarecrow Press 2009, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kW8j6sHvrewC&pg=PA111&vq=Flight&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=1#v=onepage&q=Flight&f=false Vol. 1, p. 122]</ref>
== Plot ==


A contemporary musical adaptation was [[Luigi Dallapiccola]]'s opera, ''[[Volo di notte]]'', begun in 1937 and first performed in 1940.<ref>A performance on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hges8e4dfrE You Tube]</ref> Also in the same decade, American composer [[Gardner Read]] was inspired by the novel to compose a short orchestral tone-poem, "Night Flight" (Opus 44, 1936–42).<ref>A performance on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II5xxtyLlkY You Tube]</ref> In 2014 the Korean composer Hyukjin Shin (b.1976) wrote another response to the novel in a chamber piece for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano, in this case trying to capture the pilot Fabien's final vision as he flew above the clouds.<ref>Performance on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wOxdihsSs You Tube]</ref>
Fabien is an airmail pilot of the Patagonia Mail. He has to deliver mail in Argentina during a thunderstorm. Even though the storm is dangerous, Rivière, Fabien's boss, tells him to fly that night, thereby endangering him. Rivière feels responsible for having sent Fabien on this risky flight, and keeps in radio contact with him. Fabien's wife is waiting, too. The situation becomes more and more dangerous, as Fabien is bound to die. Then the radio messages cease, and Rivière can't do anything but try to calculate when Fabien's aircraft will crash. This flight disconcerts Rivière—who, up to that point, had believed that no flights should be delayed, in order to make flying more profitable. The plot ends there, but it is almost certain that Fabien has died.


== Interpretation ==
== The novel ==
The novel is set in Argentina at the outset of commercial aviation. Rivière is the station chief of an airline that is the first to pioneer night flights, disciplining his employees to focus all they do on ensuring that the mail gets through punctually each night. The novel's episodic structure is built about his work at the Buenos Aires office and the final hours of the pilot Fabien on the [[Patagonia]] run. Fabien's plane is caught in a [[cyclone]], runs out of fuel and loses radio contact, while Rivière tries all he can to locate the aircraft. At stake is the future of the night mail-run to Europe. Once the two other flights from [[Chile]] and [[Paraguay]] get through, Rivière has to allow the trans-Atlantic flight to [[Paris]] to depart without the missing mail, resigning himself to Fabien's loss.


The narration is spare and much of the action is presented as a thought or mental perception. The final moments of Fabien are experienced in this way just as he has climbed clear of the clouds:
A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Rivière wants to show that airmail is more efficient than steamers or trains and deliberately puts his pilots at risk every day to prove this. He believes that only through risking many individual lives will airmail ultimately catch on commercially. The planes of this era did not have the [[flight instruments]] needed to fly safely at night, and many pilots who went on night flights ended up owing their lives to sheer luck.
<blockquote>And now a wonder seized him. Dazzled by that brightness, he had to keep his eyes closed for some seconds. He had never dreamt the night-clouds could dazzle thus. But the full moon and all the constellations were changing them to light.
In a flash, the very instant he had risen clear, the pilot found a peace that passed his understanding. Not a ripple tilted the plane, but like a ship that has crossed the bar, it moved within a tranquil anchorage. In an unknown secret corner of the sky it floated, as in a harbour of the Happy Isles. Below him still the storm was fashioning another world, thridded with squalls and cloudbursts and lightnings, but turning to the stars a face of crystal snow.
Now all grew luminous, his hands, his clothes, the wings, and Fabien thought that he was in a limbo of strange magic; for the light did not come down from the stars but welled up from below, from all that snowy whiteness.</blockquote>


A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Rivière wants to show that airmail is more efficient than other means of transport. “It is a matter of life and death for us; for the lead we gain by day on ships and railways is lost at night.” He therefore puts his pilots at risk to establish its commercial viability, but it is a sacrifice that they too readily accept. Drawing on his own experience and that of his fellow-pilots, Saint-Exupéry portrays them as renouncing everything in a cause in which they believe. The relationship between themselves and their employers is not that of slave and master but of man to man: a liberty with as single constraint their submission to duty. In submitting oneself to that absolute, to which all other personal considerations are consciously subordinated, greatness is achieved in one's own eyes and in those of others.
Rivière believes that it is critical that Fabien take off on time so as not to endanger the punctuality of the following flight. When he realizes that he is largely responsible for Fabien's death, he observes: "We don't ask to be eternal. What we ask is not to see acts and objects abruptly lose their meaning. The void surrounding us then suddenly yawns on every side." Fabien, for his part, does not fully understand or agree with Rivière's position, but he does not turn against him either. Although certain that he is going to die on the flight, he keeps his suffering to himself and takes off anyway.


== Translation ==
== See also ==
* [[Courrier sud (novel)|Southern Mail]], an earlier novel by Saint-Exupery concerned with air mail flights

* [[The Aviator (short story)|The Aviator]], a Saint-Exupery short story with some common themes
''Vol de Nuit'' was translated into English by [[Stuart Gilbert]] as ''Night Flight'' (Desmond Harmsworth, London, 1932). This has appeared in many editions and is still in print. ''Vol de Nuit'' has also been translated into several other languages.

== Adaptions ==

The book was turned into the 1933 movie ''[[Night Flight (1933 film)|Night Flight]]'' directed by [[Clarence Brown]] with [[Clark Gable]], [[Helen Hayes]], [[Myrna Loy]], [[John Barrymore]], [[Lionel Barrymore]], and [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]].

American composer Gardner Read was inspired by the novel to compose a 7-minute work for orchestra, "Night Flight, tone poem for orchestra, Opus 44" in 1936-1937.

The novel was also recreated in a 1940 [[Italy|Italian]] opera, ''[[Volo di notte]]'' (''Night Flight'') composed by [[Luigi Dallapiccola]] to an [[Italian language|Italian]] [[libretto]]. It was first performed at the [[Teatro della Pergola]] in [[Florence]] on May 18, 1940.<ref name="Sellors, Grove online">Sellors, Grove online</ref>
The opera emphasizes individual suffering and was written as a response to the rise of fascism.

== Awards ==

''Vol de Nuit'' won the 1931 [[Prix Femina]], one of the main French literary prizes (awarded by a female jury). Saint-Exupéry was little known prior to this outside of the literary sphere (though [[André Gide]] supported him and wrote the foreword to the first edition), but as a result of the prize received widespread recognition.

== Critical reception ==

Although ''Vol de Nuit'' won the Prix Femina in 1931, many fellow pilots criticized Saint-Exupéry because of Fabien, who was according to some, too tragic and heroic. Daurat's part was also criticized.


== References ==
== References ==
*Some of the article is based on French Wikipedia's

{{Reflist}}
;Notes
{{reflist}}

;Bibliography
* {{official website|http://www.saint-exupery.org/}}
* [http://netlabs.net/hp/richieb/saintx.html Vol de Nuit] at netlabs.net (accessed 24 August 2007)
* [http://french.about.com/od/culture/fr/voldenuit.htm Vol de Nuit] at french.about.com (accessed 24 August 2007)


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{FadedPage|id=20150364|name=Vol de nuit (French)}}
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/exupery.htm Saint-Exupéry biography]
* {{Books and Writers |id=exupery |name=Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}


{{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}
{{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Flight (Novel)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Flight (Novel)}}
[[Category:Works by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]
[[Category:1931 French novels]]
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[[Category:1931 novels]]
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[[Category:20th-century French novels]]
[[Category:French autobiographical novels]]
[[Category:Aviation novels]]
[[Category:Aviation novels]]
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[[Category:French novels adapted into films]]
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[[Category:French novels adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Novels set in Argentina]]
[[Category:Novels set in Argentina]]
[[Category:French novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Works by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]

Latest revision as of 11:13, 25 October 2024

This article is about the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For the film based on the book, see Night Flight (1933 film). For the Italian opera based on the book's story, see Volo di notte.
Night Flight
First UK edition
AuthorAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
Original titleVol de nuit
TranslatorStuart Gilbert
LanguageFrench
GenreFiction
Set inArgentina
Publication date
1931
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1932
Media typePrint

Night Flight, published as Vol de nuit in 1931, was the second novel by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It went on to become an international bestseller and a film based on it appeared in 1933.[1] Its popularity, which only grew with the ideological conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s, was due to its master theme of sacrificing personal considerations to a cause in which one believes.

History

[edit]

The book is based on Saint-Exupéry's experiences as an airmail pilot and as a director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline, based in Buenos Aires. The characters were inspired by the people Saint-Exupéry knew while working in South America. Notably, the character of Rivière was based on the airline's operations director Didier Daurat.

With an introduction by André Gide, the novel of only 23 short chapters was published by Éditions Gallimard in 1931 and was awarded the Prix Femina for that year. In 1932 it was translated into English by Stuart Gilbert as Night Flight and was made a Book of the Month Club choice in the United States. In the following year, Saint-Exupéry's friend Jacques Guerlain used the book's title as the name for his scent Vol de Nuit. The bottle was a blend of glass and metal in Art Deco style with a propeller motif.[2]

In 1933 Metro Goldwyn Mayer adapted the novel very loosely as a film, which brought the author to the attention of a far wider public.[3] In 1979 a short television feature was made by Desmond Davis, titled both Spirit of Adventure and Night Flight.[4]

A contemporary musical adaptation was Luigi Dallapiccola's opera, Volo di notte, begun in 1937 and first performed in 1940.[5] Also in the same decade, American composer Gardner Read was inspired by the novel to compose a short orchestral tone-poem, "Night Flight" (Opus 44, 1936–42).[6] In 2014 the Korean composer Hyukjin Shin (b.1976) wrote another response to the novel in a chamber piece for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano, in this case trying to capture the pilot Fabien's final vision as he flew above the clouds.[7]

The novel

[edit]

The novel is set in Argentina at the outset of commercial aviation. Rivière is the station chief of an airline that is the first to pioneer night flights, disciplining his employees to focus all they do on ensuring that the mail gets through punctually each night. The novel's episodic structure is built about his work at the Buenos Aires office and the final hours of the pilot Fabien on the Patagonia run. Fabien's plane is caught in a cyclone, runs out of fuel and loses radio contact, while Rivière tries all he can to locate the aircraft. At stake is the future of the night mail-run to Europe. Once the two other flights from Chile and Paraguay get through, Rivière has to allow the trans-Atlantic flight to Paris to depart without the missing mail, resigning himself to Fabien's loss.

The narration is spare and much of the action is presented as a thought or mental perception. The final moments of Fabien are experienced in this way just as he has climbed clear of the clouds:

And now a wonder seized him. Dazzled by that brightness, he had to keep his eyes closed for some seconds. He had never dreamt the night-clouds could dazzle thus. But the full moon and all the constellations were changing them to light.

In a flash, the very instant he had risen clear, the pilot found a peace that passed his understanding. Not a ripple tilted the plane, but like a ship that has crossed the bar, it moved within a tranquil anchorage. In an unknown secret corner of the sky it floated, as in a harbour of the Happy Isles. Below him still the storm was fashioning another world, thridded with squalls and cloudbursts and lightnings, but turning to the stars a face of crystal snow.

Now all grew luminous, his hands, his clothes, the wings, and Fabien thought that he was in a limbo of strange magic; for the light did not come down from the stars but welled up from below, from all that snowy whiteness.

A major theme of the novel is whether doing what is necessary to meet a long-term goal is more important than an individual's life. Rivière wants to show that airmail is more efficient than other means of transport. “It is a matter of life and death for us; for the lead we gain by day on ships and railways is lost at night.” He therefore puts his pilots at risk to establish its commercial viability, but it is a sacrifice that they too readily accept. Drawing on his own experience and that of his fellow-pilots, Saint-Exupéry portrays them as renouncing everything in a cause in which they believe. The relationship between themselves and their employers is not that of slave and master but of man to man: a liberty with as single constraint their submission to duty. In submitting oneself to that absolute, to which all other personal considerations are consciously subordinated, greatness is achieved in one's own eyes and in those of others.

See also

[edit]
  • Southern Mail, an earlier novel by Saint-Exupery concerned with air mail flights
  • The Aviator, a Saint-Exupery short story with some common themes

References

[edit]
  • Some of the article is based on French Wikipedia's
  1. ^ Saint Exupéry: A Biography, Stacy Schiff, pg.210
  2. ^ My Origines
  3. ^ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry webpage
  4. ^ Jerry Robert, Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors, Scarecrow Press 2009, Vol. 1, p. 122
  5. ^ A performance on You Tube
  6. ^ A performance on You Tube
  7. ^ Performance on You Tube
[edit]
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