Papillon: With an Introd. by Jean-Pierre Castelnau. Translated by June P. Wilson and Walter B. Michaels"Henri Charrière himself is Papillon. Convicted in Paris in 1931, aged 25, for a murder he had not committed, Charrière was sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana. One thought obsessed him: escape. Forty-two days after his arrival in 1933, he made his first break, traveling on the open sea in a tiny boat, in desperate stages, 1500 miles in all, he reached Colombia. There he was recaptured by the French authorities and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. Eventually he was sent to Devil's Island. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison--no one until Papillon flung himself from a giant rock into the foaming sea, to float for days in the shriveling sun--his makeshift raft, two sacks of coconuts. At last, in 1945, he found sanctuary in Venezuela, of which country he is now a citizen. In the course of twelve years, he had undertaken nine daring escapes. Thrilling as the escapes are, life inside the penal settlements is as vividly portrayed: Papillon's fellow prisoners--colorful, ruthless, corrupt, loyal; the horrors of confinement in an open cage; the nightmare of a dungeon where the seawater rose in the cells at high tide, floating with rats and centipedes; the constant threat of suicide or madness--or death at the hands of the guards or of fellow prisoners. It was, of course, the quality of the man himself which enabled him to survive, to escape the horror of the complete annihilation of human values. Not only to escape, but to triumph. As he tells his story straightforwardly, spontaneously, he is revealed as a leader--self-disciplined, modest, humorous, capable of great loyalty--inexhaustibly challenging the injustices of a dehumanized establishment. Papillon has written an adventure story in the deepest sense. Papillon is an odyssey of the human spirit."--Jacket. |
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Arab arrived asked bagnards bagne Baranquilla boat Brutus bush camp Carbonieri cavale Celier cell Chapar Chatal cigarettes Clousiot coconut coffee Colombian Corsican Cuic-Cuic Curaçao Dega Diable doctor door escape everything eyes feet fish five four francs French French Guiana Galgani gave give Grande Terre Grandet guards Güiria hammock hand head hundred Iles du Salut Indian islands Jean Julot killed knew knife Kourou Lali leave legs looked Maturette minutes morning never night o'clock Papi Papillon piece Pierrot le Fou police Port of Spain prisoners pulled raft Réclusion revolt Royale sacks sail Saint-Joseph Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Saint-Martin-de-Ré Santa Marta sentence sharks sleep smoked stopped Sylvain talk tell Thanks there's thing told took turned Venezuela waiting walked warden watched waves wind yards Zoraima Zorrillo