Children's book: The Travels of Babar

Overview

Jean de Brunhoff’s The Travels of Babar continues the story of the young elephant who, in the previous book, returned from the city and became king. Opening with Babar’s festive wedding to his cousin Celeste, the book quickly turns into a picaresque honeymoon-turned-odyssey. A celebratory balloon ride meant to crown their union is swept away by wind and storm, sending the royal pair far from Celesteville and into a chain of unpredictable adventures across seas, islands, cities, and deserts.

Story

The narrative begins amid happiness and pageantry as the elephants honor Babar and Celeste. They ascend in a bright hot-air balloon, waving to friends, but the weather shifts and the balloon is driven off course. Days of drifting end in an abrupt landing that maroons them far from home. Their efforts to make do, resourceful and dignified even in hardship, are interrupted when inhabitants of a nearby island seize them. Bound and threatened, the newlyweds must rely on nerve and cleverness to escape, and a stroke of luck carries them back to the larger world.

Their rescue does not end the complications. The couple’s travels become a sequence of arrivals and departures. They board ships and trains, get swept into bustling cities where their elegant clothes and manners both charm and attract the wrong sort of attention, and even find themselves displayed like curiosities. Each time they are confined or exploited, Babar’s composure and Celeste’s levelheadedness see them through. They slip away, improvise, and keep moving, determined to find a route home.

Notable Episodes

Among the book’s most striking passages is the balloon storm that sets the tone for all that follows, juxtaposing festive fantasy with the peril of the open sky. The episode on the island, where Babar and Celeste are captured and narrowly avoid a grim fate, reminds readers that their journey is as dangerous as it is exciting. Later, swept into a world of showmen and spectators, the pair are thrust onto a stage they never sought; their escape, involving quick thinking and borrowed machines, is both comic and daring. They cross mountains and parched plains, face hunger and thirst, and accept help from strangers when it comes. De Brunhoff moves them briskly from one landscape to the next, each spread a new set of colors, costumes, and conveyances.

Tone, Images, and Era

The book’s charm lies in the juxtaposition of courtly poise with slapstick peril, rendered in clear lines and soft, luminous colors. Babar and Celeste remain impeccably turned out even while improvising in strange places, a gentle parody of modern sophistication on the move. The travelogue structure lets de Brunhoff string together spectacles, balloons, ships, trains, airplanes, while keeping the focus on companionship and resilience. Some episodes reflect period imagery, including depictions of “cannibals” and colonially coded encounters that modern readers may find troubling; they are part of the book’s 1932 lens on faraway places.

Ending

After trials that transform a honeymoon into a long circuit of the world, Babar and Celeste finally chart a course back to Celesteville. Their return is not triumphant conquest but relieved reunion, greeted by friends who have worried and waited. The journey affirms their partnership: two gentle rulers who face uproar with courtesy, who learn to navigate a modern, sprawling world without losing kindness or tact. The closing warmth points forward to Babar’s duties at home, setting the stage for later adventures in which the wisdom gleaned on the road shapes the kingdom they will build together.