Papillon
1969
- prisoners, biography
- escapes
- prisoners
- biography
- autobiographical fiction
- prison life in fiction
- personal narratives
- biography: general
- language readers
- biografía
The story
Describes the life of a man sent to prison on a miserable island, Cayena, where escape is impossible. It is a terrible life for him but he finally escapes after much suffering.
What it’s like
Raw, sun-scorched and claustrophobic, with the heat and stench of a penal colony pressing off the page. Henri Charrière's voice is blunt, vivid and matter-of-fact, the prose of a man recounting his own ordeal with little polish and a lot of sweat, salt spray and rot in it: tropical rain on corrugated roofs, the glare of the sea against jungle green, the grey gloom of solitary cells. The mood is grim endurance laced with stubborn defiance, a restless, pressured read that rarely lets up, with long stretches of hopelessness broken by sudden bursts of action and cunning. Violence is present and unsparing, with brutal beatings, knife fights and cruelty from guards and fellow convicts, though it is recounted plainly rather than lingered over for gore. Dread and despair carry more weight than horror, and there is no sexual content of note. The emotional arc follows a proud, obstinate man who refuses to be broken, his friendships forged in hardship and his hope kept alive through sheer will. Best suited to readers who want a gripping, rough-edged true-style adventure of survival and escape, and who are comfortable with harsh, sustained hardship.
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