Papillon
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
One of the most astonishing true stories of survival and defiance ever committed to the page, Papillon chronicles the harrowing odyssey of Henri Charrière — nicknamed Papillon for the butterfly tattooed on his chest — a Frenchman wrongfully convicted of murder and condemned to the brutal penal colonies of French Guiana in the 1930s. From the notorious Devil's Island to the fetid jungle camps of the South American interior, Charrière details a relentless, decade-long struggle against an inhuman prison system, starvation, solitary confinement, and the crushing weight of injustice — all fuelled by one indomitable obsession: freedom. Translated into English by Patrick O'Brian with elegant precision, this memoir stands as a landmark of 20th-century autobiographical writing, combining the raw tension of a thriller with the moral urgency of a human rights testament. Charrière's voice is unvarnished and visceral, pulling no punches as it presents the darkest corners of state-sanctioned cruelty while simultaneously celebrating the unconquerable resilience of the human spirit. A worldwide phenomenon upon its original French publication in 1969, Papillon raises a question that lingers long after the final page: what price is a man willing to pay to reclaim his own life?
Author: Henri Charrière
Format: Hardback
Published: 1970, Rupert Hart-Davis
Genre: Biography
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
One of the most astonishing true stories of survival and defiance ever committed to the page, Papillon chronicles the harrowing odyssey of Henri Charrière — nicknamed Papillon for the butterfly tattooed on his chest — a Frenchman wrongfully convicted of murder and condemned to the brutal penal colonies of French Guiana in the 1930s. From the notorious Devil's Island to the fetid jungle camps of the South American interior, Charrière details a relentless, decade-long struggle against an inhuman prison system, starvation, solitary confinement, and the crushing weight of injustice — all fuelled by one indomitable obsession: freedom. Translated into English by Patrick O'Brian with elegant precision, this memoir stands as a landmark of 20th-century autobiographical writing, combining the raw tension of a thriller with the moral urgency of a human rights testament. Charrière's voice is unvarnished and visceral, pulling no punches as it presents the darkest corners of state-sanctioned cruelty while simultaneously celebrating the unconquerable resilience of the human spirit. A worldwide phenomenon upon its original French publication in 1969, Papillon raises a question that lingers long after the final page: what price is a man willing to pay to reclaim his own life?