It was with cheerful heart that I found myself pulling on my uniform this morning, closing my bag, giving a final shine to my shoes, saying goodbye to my long-suffering wife (who has chosen to mark my departure with a day of vociferous squalling in bed), and looking forward to spying you on the platform within the hour. My eagerness to depart is wholly undeterred by the knowledge that honor and glory may never be mine.
I am content. It is as natural for me to give my life for my country as it is for you, Lamotte, to follow the dictates of your soul. With great relief I leave today in pursuit of freedom and peace—wherever I may find them, however I may help bring them into being.
But first to the station where, provided we find each other in the crowd, you will wish me a safe and speedy return (as a great friend must) and I shall wish you a long and happy life unencumbered by nostalgia, as must a man who is forever destined to leave his friends.
An ending always foretells a beginning. This is why I so love sunsets. Any day, one could wake to find oneself living on a star.
Saint-Ex
In a corner of the onionskin page was an ink sketch of the Little Prince’s tiny planet, its knee-high volcano smudged by rainfall. I said, “If I hadn’t gone to Montreal, he might be here celebrating with us today.”
“I don’t think so, my dear.”
“At least he might not have asked Consuelo to come to New York.”
“He didn’t ask her. She told him she was sailing to visit her family in El Salvador. She said New York was just a few days’ stopover—and then she stayed.”
My lips parted in astonishment.
Bernard kissed me.
The rain picked up. It soaked our shoulders and our shoes. As we rose to go indoors, we pushed it from our eyes. I paused on the threshold. The wind chime on the open door was ringing in the rain.
Afterword
The Little Prince was published in New York in 1943 and in France in 1945. It became one of the best-selling novels of all time.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s whereabouts remained a mystery until 1998, when his engraved identity bracelet was snagged by a fisherman’s net and pulled from the Mediterranean Sea. Two years later, his airplane was found in pieces, strewn across the seabed. His body has never been recovered.
Consuelo remained true to form until her death in 1979. It has been said that she moved in with another writer in New York upon Antoine’s departure in 1943; that she allegedly forged a section of her husband’s will to expand her entitlement to royalties; and that she banked heavily on her connection to The Little Prince, including opening a restaurant called Le Petit Prince where she wore a sailor’s hat embellished with the same. Her memoir of unorthodox love was published posthumously as The Tale of the Rose.
Bernard Lamotte died in New York at the age of eighty. His life’s work includes murals commissioned by John F. Kennedy for the White House pool. His artwork is still displayed at his beautiful old studio, which has been home to the haute cuisine restaurant Le Grenouille for the past half century. A plaque on the building’s facade commemorates the creation of The Little Prince—directly across the street from the side entrance of the Fifth Avenue Cartier store, which locale for a short time did indeed host the Alliance Française, though not in the configuration described within these pages.
The very real (and self-invented) designer Valentina Schlee was largely forgotten until the 2009 publication of Kohle Yohannan’s fascinating Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity and the accompanying show at the Museum of the City of New York. Mignonne’s white silk chiffon dress was inspired by the Valentina creation that graces the book’s back cover. Mig’s bold modeling of the butterfly ensemble draws on the words and actions of the inimitable Valentina herself, down to the corselet.
While the record shows that both Saint-Exupérys had close or intimate relationships outside of marriage, it should be noted that all aspects of the relationships within this book are fictional. The specific nature of Antoine’s extramarital relations remains a matter of speculation, with some sources suggesting that his were exclusively platonic affairs. If so, his abstinence may not have been a matter of impotence but of a sense of responsibility: Saint-Exupéry biographer Stacy Schiff notes that her subject believed erroneously that he may have inherited syphilis, and worried (despite repeated test results to the contrary) that he was at risk of spreading the disease.
Whenever possible within the demands of this story, I have situated the Saint-Exupérys and their compatriots in historically documented places and situations at the historically correct times. I have attempted to give context to the better known of Antoine’s written and quoted words, and have called upon my version of Consuelo to recast her documented tales and claims. Nevertheless, all elements of this novel—whether inspired by, based on, reflecting, or distorting the known facts—should be construed as fiction. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s many biographers differ significantly in their interpretation of this complicated and contradictory man and his tempestuous wife.
Acknowledgments
Three remarkable women guided me through this story’s final transformations and brought it to an international readership: I’m indebted to my editors Victoria Wilson and Adrienne Kerr, and to my agent Melanie Jackson, for their wisdom, enthusiasm, and grace. Thank you also to my publishers, my publicists Kathryn Zuckerman and Barbara Bower, and all who have worked so diligently in support of this book.
The manuscript benefitted greatly from perceptive readings by Barbara Berson, Cathy Marie Buchanan, Michael Schellenberg, Dianne Scott, and Roz Spafford. Sincere gratitude to them, and to University of British Columbia’s MFA in Creative Writing program, where early drafts took shape.
Howard Scherry was generous in sharing resources and his vast knowledge of Saint-Exupéry’s New York years. Stacy Schiff provided corroboration at a critical juncture. The Museum of the City of New York enthralled me with exhibitions on Valentina and on Paris and New York’s design and fashion cultures; Jacqueline Chambord delved into the history of New York City’s French Institute Alliance Française; the Color Institute unearthed 1940s fabrics and attitudes. Patricia Stewart and David Page provided Expo 67 materials and cast a careful eye over my French.
Among print sources, I am most grateful for Saint-Exupéry: A Biography by Stacy Schiff, as well as biographies by Curtis Cate, Marcel Migeo, and Joy D. Marie Robinson; Saint Exupéry: Art, Writings and Musings by Nathalie des Vallières; Saint-Exupéry in America, 1942–1943: A Memoir by Adele Breaux; Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity by Kohle Yohannan; The Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired “The Little Prince” and Kingdom of the Rocks: Memories of Oppède by Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry; Émigré New York: French Intellectuals in Wartime Manhattan, 1940–1944 by Jeffrey Mehlman; Don’t You Know There’s a War On?: The American Home Front, 1941–1945 by Richard Lingeman; Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look by Jonathan Walford; A Stitch in Time: A History of New York’s Fashion District by Gabriel Montero; Over Here!: New York City During World War II by Lorraine B. Diehl; and, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince and other works, particularly Wartime Writings 1939–1944.
Heartfelt gratitude to those who hosted me as I worked in Toronto, New York City, Massachusetts, Florida, Hamilton, Quebec, on the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Mississagua, in a wintery Killarney Park yurt, at Robert Wyatt’s magical Woodstock home, and at Toronto Writers’ Centre—my thanks to its members and its founder, Mitch Kowalski.
While writing this book, I was buoyed by the faith and creativity of Bruce Hefler, Ela Hefler, Luke Hefler, Daniela Draves, Celina Szado, Edward Szado, Cathy Buchanan, Miranda Hill, Ellen Irving, Eduarda Sousa, and Angela Thomas.
I thank the Ontario Arts Council for financial assistance during the tenure of this project.
To conclude where Studio Saint-Ex began: When I was eleven, I was given a copy of The Little Prince. I will forever be aware—and grateful—that the gift of a book can ch
ange the course of a child’s life.
A Note About the Author
Ania Szado graduated from the Ontario College of Art and the University of British Columbia. Her first novel, Beginning of Was, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her writing has appeared in numerous periodicals, including The Globe and Mail, Flare, and This Magazine. She lives in Toronto.
For more information, please visit www.aaknopf.com
Reading Group Guide for Studio Saint-Ex
by Ania Szado
About the Guide
The introduction, discussion questions, and suggested further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of Ania Szado’s Studio Saint-Ex, a brilliant work of historical fiction based on the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the celebrated French author best known for the whimsical tale The Little Prince.
About the Book
Set in World War II-era New York City and Montreal, Studio Saint-Ex is a sumptuous novel that explores the heights and depths of romantic love, artistic ambition, and sacrifice for one’s ideals. Ania Szado gives readers a brilliantly imagined account of two very different women and their love for one of the greatest literary icons of modern France.
The novel is primarily narrated by Mignonne Lachapelle, a young designer fresh out of New York Fashion School. Although her family pedigree allows her access to all the glamour and glitz of the French expatriate society, she is determined to make her name in the emerging fashion scene of the early 1940s. Living with her alcoholic brother and employed under the not-so-nurturing wing of a former professor, Mignonne struggles to find her identity as an American designer in a country changed by impending war.
Mignonne’s creative life is both complicated and inspired by her relationship with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a charismatic Frenchman twenty years her senior. Initially introduced to Antoine as his English tutor, she is quickly seduced by Antoine’s exotic past and unique genius. “Saint-Ex” is an irresistible force of intellect and heroic passion, a man already famous for his daring missions as an airmail carrier through North Africa, and for several acclaimed works detailing his adventures as a pilot. The two begin a tumultuous yet unconsummated love affair beset by obstacles, not the least of which is Antoine’s obsession to liberate his beloved France from Hitler’s regime. Temporarily exiled in the States, Saint-Ex lives for the day he is allowed to again take to the skies.
Also hindering their romance is Antoine’s beautiful and conniving wife, Consuelo. Fixated on winning Antoine’s exclusive affections despite a history of infidelity on both sides, Consuelo uses Mignonne as a pawn in her schemes. Her ultimate opportunity arrives when she discovers Mignonne’s wish to render Antoine’s most recent literary work into a theatrical, haute couture production. Antoine has just completed the manuscript for The Little Prince, a tale of a plane-wrecked pilot who encounters a young Prince fallen to Earth from another planet. In collaboration with Mignonne, Consuelo drives the project forward and insists on being the star of the show, despite Antoine’s abhorrence of the idea.
The production is a rousing success, and sparks the beginning of a legendary career for Mignonne, at the same time giving Consuelo the accolades she craves. However, both women ultimately fail in their true objective: to keep Antoine on terra firma.
Studio Saint-Ex is a lusciously written account of a man mired in the contradictions of his own nature, and the women who would go to almost any lengths to possess him. Above all, Ania Szado sheds a sensuous light on the fundamental longing of the human heart to transcend the realities of an imperfect world.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why does Ania Szado choose to write Mignonne’s perspective in the first person, while Consuelo’s inner life is described in third person? How does this affect the reader’s understanding of the two women?
2. How do the attitudes and dynamics of the New York fashion world of World War II mirror the larger social and political forces at play, both within the city and on the global stage?
3. It can be argued that each character in Studio Saint-Ex is something of an opportunist. Consider Véra Fiche, Mignonne, Consuelo, Binty, Antoine: what did each character really want, and were they successful in achieving it?
4. In what ways are names important in the story, both as a literary device and as an indication of the social structures of the times?
5. Madame Fiche says to Mignonne: “People need a luxurious escape these days, no?” [this page]. What is the role of art and literature in a time of war? How does this theme play out in the novel?
6. How does the political dissention of their home country affect the French society in 1940s New York? What kind of social and political environment prevails at the Alliance Française? How are the novel’s characters influenced by the community’s turmoil?
7. What does Mignonne learn from her relationship with Véra Fiche? How do Mignonne’s designs reflect her unfolding as an artist and a woman?
8. The three main characters come from a multitude of cultural backgrounds. Where is home for Mignonne, Antoine, Consuelo?
9. What are the flaws and strengths of the artist’s nature, as expressed by Bernard Lamotte, Antoine, Consuelo, and Mignonne? What does the novel as a whole say about the artist?
10. Antoine says: “And then, in spite of my efforts to the contrary, I grew up. It is painful to grow up” [this page]. In what ways is Antoine still like a child? Does he continue to resist adulthood?
11. When asking Antoine about his marriage to Consuelo, Mignonne says, “Sacrament or sacrifice? You’re like a man who is offered a knife but insists on staying tied to his stake” [this page]. What truly binds Antoine to Consuelo? Does he in fact love her? Does he love Mignonne?
12. Mignonne and Consuelo are often compared to forces of nature throughout the novel. How do these descriptions serve to enrich the reader’s understanding of the similarities and differences between them? What is the significance of Antoine’s rose?
13. What did Consuelo hope to accomplish by going to a world’s fair so many years after her last encounter with Mignonne? What would have transpired if Mignonne had been able to attend the retrospective in person, as planned? How have both women been changed by the years?
14. Leo, Mignonne’s brother, tells her: “You were all swooning over [The Little Prince] like it’s a love story. Open your eyes, people. It isn’t a love story, it’s a war story. The prince goes back to his rose at the end. That’s his country. He signs up to die for his prickly, pretty France” [this page]. Is Leo right? Was Antoine’s death a senseless tragedy or did he die a hero? Is Studio Saint-Ex a love story or a war story or both?
Suggestions for further reading
Cathy Marie Buchanan, The Painted Girls; Melanie Benjamin, The Aviator’s Wife; Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring; Nancy Horan, Loving Frank; David Lodge, A Man of Parts; Paula McLain, The Paris Wife; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince; Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, The Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired “The Little Prince.”
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