"Babar The King" is a delightful story of how King Babar and his wife, Queen Celeste, set to work building the town of their dreams- Celesteville. Everything goes according to plan until a series of
disasterous events occur, placing grave doubts in the minds of Babar and his subjects. However, instead of
becoming distressed and doubting their future, the elephants decide to accept what has happened as
a learning experience, and everything turns out for the better. The tale takes place after Babar and Celeste's honeymoon and when the elephants have signed a peace agreement with the rhinoceroses. Babar gathers all his faithful subjects around him and tells them of his plan - to build a lovely town by a large, picturesque lake. He promises them fine clothes and other gifts in return for their help in the building of the houses and palaces which will comprise the town of Celesteville. They happily agree to help him, and set to work.
When they have finished building the town, Babar keeps his promise and gives a present and fine clothes to each of the elephants who agreed to help build the town. He then arranges a lovely "Garden Party" for them on the following weekend which would be held in the grounds of the "Palace of Pleasure", a palace built just for the purpose of entertainment. Then all the elephants set to work to prepare for the much awaited event - the cooks baking delicious pastries, the children learning a celebratory song to sing, etc. On the day of the party, everything goes as planned and the elephants have a lovely time - dancing in their fine clothes, singing songs, eating delicious food and playing games. After the party, each one of the adult elephants decides to assume a profession (for example - shoe maker, officer, doctor, mechanic etc) and the young elephants are made to go to school. All of the elephants are happy with their chosen pathways and those who have chosen professions agree to exchange goods with one another.
King Babar, Celeste and their loyal subjects are just beginning to settle down into their newly developed town when disaster strikes. Madame, one of Babar's closest friends, is bitten by a snake on the way home from a fete, and Cornelius is badly injured in a house fire! Babar begins to despair. The doctor tells him that Madame may not survive the wound and Cornelius
has incurred serious injuries. He goes to bed in a sorrowful state, not being able to sleep because of the
unfortunate occurrances. However, the following day, when Babar visits the hospital, it turns out that
Madame and Cornelius have completely recovered! He is overcome in feelings of happiness and joy.
A week or so later, Madame tells them what could be considered the moral of the story...
"Remember that in this life we must never lose heart. The wicked snake has not killed me, and Cornelius
is well again. Let us work and play with a will and we shall always be happy." The story ends on this inspirational note, with De Brunhoff commenting that "...since that day in the country of the elephants
they have all lived in peace and happiness." It is truley a delightful and inspirational tale of how when
unfortunate events occur, we must not become disheartened and reproachful. Instead, we should put past, unfortunate events behind us and focus on our future lives.
