Papillon is a memoir by Henri Charrière. It was published in 1970, 25 years after the events of the book. It was translated into English from the original French by author Patrick O'Brian. It has been described as an autobiographical novel or a fictional novel by critics, but Charrière always maintained that the account was accurate and true. The book's title is Charrière's nickname, derived from a butterfly tattoo on his chest (papillon being the French word for butterfly).

The book accounts for a thirteen year period in Charrière's life (October 26, 1932 to October 18, 1945) from when he was wrongly convicted of murder in France and sentenced to a life of hard labor in the French Guiana penal colony, to when he was released from a Venezuelan prison, free of French justice.

Charrière endured a brief stay at a prison in Caen. As soon as Charrière boarded the vessel bound for South America, he learned about the brutal life that prisoners must endure. Murders were not uncommon among convicts. Men were cut into by makeshift knives for their plan (a hollow, metal cylinder containing money that is lodged in the colon. It has also been called a charger). Charrière befriended a former banker convicted of counterfeiting money named Louis Dega. He agreed to protect Dega from those seeking to murder him for his plan.

Arriving at the penal colony, Charrière immediately claimed to be ill and was sent to the infirmary. There, he collaborated with two individuals named Clousiot and Maturette to escape from the prison by sailboat. They let the current of the Cayenne River take them to the Atlantic Ocean, after which they began to sail northwesterly.

The trio were joined by two other escapees and were helped on their journey by a leper colony, a British family and several others. Nearing the Colombian coastline, the escapees were sighted; they could not escape due to a lack of wind, were captured and were then imprisoned.

Charrière, in the Colombian prison, joined with another prisoner to escape. After distancing themselves from the prison, the two went their separate ways. Charrière entered Guajira, a region dominated by Native Americans. He was assimilated into a coastal village whose specialty was pearl diving, married two teenage sisters and impregnated them. After spending several months in relative paradise, Charrière became motivated to seek vengeance against those that wronged him.

Soon after leaving the village, Charrière was captured, imprisoned at Santa Marta, then transferred to Barranquilla. There, he was reunited with Clousiot and Maturette. Charrière made numerous escape attempts from this prison, all failing. He was eventually extradited back to French Guiana.

As punishment for escaping, Charrière was sentenced to two years of solitary confinement on Île Saint-Joseph (an island in the Îles du Salut group, 11 kilometers from the French Guiana coast). Clousiot and Maturette were given equal sentences. Upon release, Charrière was transferred to Royal Island (also an island in the Îles du Salut group). An escape attempt was foiled by an informant (who Charrière stabbed to death for the act) and Charrière was again sent to solitary confinement, this time for nineteen months. The original sentence of eight years was reduced after Charrière risked his life to save the life of a girl caught in shark-infested waters.

After French Guiana officials decided to support the pro-Nazi Vichy Regime, the penalty for any escape attempt became capital punishment. Realizing this, Charrière decided to feign insanity and be sent to the insane asylum on Royal Island. His reasoning was that insane prisoners could not be sentenced to death for any reason and the asylum was under less heavy guard. He collaborated with another prisoner, but this escape attempt failed. When they were attempting to sail away, their boat was destroyed against the rocks, the other prisoner drowned and Charrière was nearly dashed against the rocks as well.

Charrière returned to the regular prisoner population on Royal Island after being "cured" from his mental illness. He requested that he be transferred to Devil's Island, the smallest and most "inescapable" island in the Iles de Salut group. There, he found reunion with Louis Dega. Studying the waters around the island, Charrière discovered a rocky inlet surrounded by a high cliff that caused a phenomenon to occur in the water currents. He realized that every seventh wave would be large enough to carry something on the water far enough out into the sea and drift towards to the mainland. He experimented by throwing sacks of coconuts into the inlet.

Charrière found another prisoner to go along with this escape attempt. They threw themselves into the inlet with sacks of coconuts to float on. The seventh wave carried them out into the ocean. After days of drifting on the ocean under the relentless sun, surviving only on coconut pulp, they arrived at the mainland. Stupidly, the other prisoner left his coconut sack prematurely and was devoured by quick sand.

Charrière then navigated the mainland to find an elderly Chinese man named Cuic Cuic. Cuic Cuic's brother, incarcerated on Devil's Island, had told Charrière to seek his help. Cuic Cuic protected himself by making a hut on an "island" of solid ground surrounded by quick sand. His pig was adept at finding a navigable route over the quick sand. The men and the pig made their way to Georgetown, Guyana by boat. Though he could have lived there as a free man, Charrière decided to continue northwesterly in the company of five other escapees. Reaching Venezuela, the men were captured and imprisoned at El Dorado, a small mining town in the middle of the Grand Sabana region.

Surviving horrible conditions there, Charrière was eventually released, obtaining the Venezuelan citizenship a few years later.

Charrière followed the book with a sequel (Banco) in 1973, following on from the events in Papillon.

Film version (1973)

The film version was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière (Papillon) and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. The film was geared towards an American audience.

The script made several deviations from the book. Mainly, it dramatized the role of men hired to hunt down escaped prisoners, included Dega on the first escape, excluded much of what happened to Charrière while he was away from French Guiana and ended with his having escaped the currents surrounding Devil's Island.

In 1974, the film was nominated for Oscar and Golden Globe awards in the Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (Jerry Goldsmith) and Best Motion Picture Actor, Drama (Steve McQueen) categories, respectively.

Editions

• ISBN 0060934794 (560 pages; English; paperback; published by Harper Perennial; July 1, 2001)
• ISBN 0246639873 (566 pages; English; hardcover; published by Hart-Davis Macgibbon Ltd; January, 1970)
• ISBN 0854565493 (250 pages; English; large-print hardcover; published by Ulverscroft Large Print; October, 1976)
• ISBN 0613494539 (English; school and library binding; published by Rebound by Sagebrush; August, 2001)
• ISBN 0736601082 (English; audio cassette; published by Books on Tape, Inc.; March 1, 1978)

1970 books | Autobiographies | 1973 films | Drama films | Adventure films | Films based on actual events | Prison films

Papillon (Buch) | Papillon (livre) | Мотылёк (фильм) | Papillon (bok)