La Ville dont le prince est un enfant is a play published in 1951–67 by the French dramatist Henry de Montherlant.
Philosophy student André Sevrais attends a Catholic boys' school in Paris, where he establishes a firm friendship with a much younger schoolmate, the rebellious Serge Souplier.
Christophe Malavoy directed in 1997 a film entitled La Ville dont le prince est un enfant, also known by its English language release title The Fire That Burns.
A later translation, The Fire that Consumes by Vivian Cox, was staged at the Mermaid Theatre, London, in 1977, with Nigel Hawthorne in the role of the Abbé de Pradts.
However Montherlant would take huge precautions to approach the touchy taboo subject of friendship between children and adults, especially in a Catholic environment, genuinely fearing to write a text which would devalue the religion as he carefully explained in the long foreword to the play and the appendix published with it.