Love letters and a dispute over the inheritance of Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

A new book containing the love letters of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry examines the novel that is claimed to have inspired one of the great works of the 20th century, as well as provoking fierce conflict between his heirs. "The Little Prince" by French aviator, poet and war hero Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has reportedly sold more than 200 million copies in 450 different translations since it was first published in 1943. At the center of the story is a mysterious star-traveling princess whose relationship with the rose, delicate and demanding, occupies an important place.

The real rose in St. Exupery's life was Consuelo Sunsin, a Salvadoran artist who rose to fame in Latin American society and far beyond before marrying him in 1930. Now more than 160 of their letters and telegrams, embellished with dozens of their drawings, photographs and other memorabilia, are being published in France on Thursday.

It's no surprise that the marriage between the multifaceted Charles "St. Exie" Saint-Exupéry, a wandering adventurer, and the intensely lively and sharp-tongued artist was tumultuous. "Consuelo, my dear, you don't realize how much it hurts me," he wrote in one letter. "I am possessed by the city because I am so afraid of being cast out of your heart," she replied. Their relationship changed from breakups to reconciliations. "Consuelo had an eccentric temperament and he suffered from depressions. 'His numerous affairs were not a sign of don Juanism but the result of emotional weakness,' biographer Alain Vircondelet told AFP.

One of St. Exupery's last letters, however, has no room for doubts about their sincere feelings. He writes, "Consuelo, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my wife..... If I die, I have someone who will wait for me in eternity.

Saint Exupery, who joined the French resistance while in exile in the United States, disappeared after a reconnaissance flight from Corsica in July 1944. Evidence of the crash was only discovered in 1998 when a Marseille fisherman fished out a silver bracelet bearing their names.

Saint-Exupéry's aristocratic family never approved of Consuelo, and after his death they virtually removed her from his life story. "Marrying a foreigner was considered worse than marrying a Jew," a family member told biographer Paul Webster in the 1990s.

She got her revenge, in Webster's words, by transferring half of the copyright royalties to her gardener-chauffeur Jose Fructuoso Martinez when she died in 1979, along with a huge number of love letters. In 2008, St. Exupery's family took legal action against him after he published a book about Antoine and Consuelo's relationship without their permission. However, six years later, he sued them and won, so that they would pay him a share of the cartoon income based on the book.

The publication of love letters is the agreement of the two hereditary parties to reconcile. As far as we know, scholar Alain Vircondelet, who is an expert on the writer, says that many more unknowns of their correspondence remain in the possession of Martinez's gardener widow, Martina Martinez Fructuoso. "She has a tremendous wealth when it comes to St. Exupery, and every time she talks about it, I stop in amazement," Virkondelet told AFP.

The story is based on the novel that inspired one of the most popular and long-running stories in literature, and its roots can be traced back to the very first letter that Saint-Exupéry wrote to his future wife. "I'm remembering a very old story and changing it a bit," he writes shortly after they met in Buenos Aires. "There was a little boy who discovered a treasure. But the treasure was too magnificent for a child whose eyes could not appreciate it and whose hands could not hold it. That's why the baby was sad.".