Description
Convicted of a murder he did not commit, Henri Charrière—known as "Papillon" for the butterfly tattoo adorning his chest—was sentenced to life imprisonment in the brutal penal colony of French Guiana in 1931. Consumed by an unwavering determination to reclaim his freedom, he orchestrates a series of daring escape attempts across decades, each more treacherous than the last, until he is finally imprisoned on Devil's Island—a fortress from which no prisoner had ever successfully fled. This astonishing autobiography chronicles Papillon's extraordinary journey of cunning, resilience, and indomitable will as he pursues the impossible and ultimately achieves what many believed could never be done. First published in France in 1968 to instant acclaim, Charrière's gripping account has become a timeless classic that transcends the prison narrative to become a profound testament to the human spirit's capacity to endure and triumph against impossible odds. A shocking, unforgettable odyssey of an innocent man who refused to be defeated, Papillon remains one of the most compelling true stories of escape, survival, and redemption ever told.
Available Editions
paperback
Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Published Aug 1, 2006
576 pages
ISBN: 9780061120664
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Details
First Published
1969
Language
eng
Translation
Original: Papillon
From: fra
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Papillon by Henri Charrière.