Old style literary French

A few diplomats and Diplomatic Hospitality Canadians read the story about Le renard from Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince, this morning, with emotion and appreciation, but we became rather bogged down in the verb tenses. The book, banned by the Vichy régime in France during the 2nd World War, first appeared in 1943. This style of writing seems rather archaic nowadays, but I vaguely remember having to learn the verb forms in my school days. I need to revise them now, so am noting this link sent to us afterwards by Marie Danielle, that elucidates the difference between the tenses and 'moods' of verbs in written and spoken French.