papillon

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About the author

Meet Henri Charrière

About the book

The Way of the Warrior
The Salvation Islands
The Dreyfus Affair
Adaptation

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From Gulags to Dungeons: Books That Hold Us Captive

About the author

Meet Henri Charrière

THE SON OF A LOCAL SCHOOLMASTER, Henri Charrière was born in 1906 in
the Ardèche region of the south of France. Following a shadowy career in
the Paris underworld he was arrested in 1931 for murder, though he always
maintained his innocence, and was sent to a penal camp on the coast of
French Guiana to serve his sentence. After a series of daring attempted
escapes he finally made it to Venezuela in 1945. There he married, settled in
Caracas, became a Venezuelan citizen, and made a living as a restaurant
owner. Information about Charrière’s life after the publication of Papillon is
patchy at best. He appeared as a jewel thief in a small-budget heist movie
called The Butterfly Affair in 1970, and was on set in an advisory role for
the filming of the 1973 Hollywood adaptation of Papillon. He died of throat
cancer in Spain on July 29, 1973, but is reportedly buried in France. He was
sixty-six.

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About the book

The Way of the Warrior

by Howard Marks, author of
Mr. Nice: An Autobiography

HENRI-ANTOINE CHARRIÈRE WAS BORN on November 16, 1906, in Saint-
Etienne-de Lugares, Ardèche, where his parents taught at local schools.
Charrière’s mother died when he was eleven years old, and his subsequent
unruly, violent, and bad behavior led his father to enroll him in the French
Navy. He was given the nickname “Papillon” due to a magnificent butterfly
tattoo on his chest. Naval discipline and culture did not suit Charrière,
however, and he evaded further service by amputating his own thumb. He
moved to Paris and soon became respected and popular among the city’s
notorious underworld of safecrackers, thieves, and prostitutes. In 1930 he
was arrested for the murder of a pimp, although there was no direct
evidence against him. The public prosecutor, however, produced a dubious
witness whose testimony proved sufficient to establish Charrière’s guilt.
The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment.

“Naval discipline and culture did not suit Charrière, however, and
he evaded further service by amputating his own thumb.”

Civilians are incarcerated for four reasons: to deter others from
offending; to reform and rehabilitate the offender; to satisfy society’s desire
for revenge by ensuring that the offender gets his or her just deserts; and to
protect society from the actions of the offender. But even the most severe
prison sentences will deter a potential offender only if the detection rate is
high. In most countries, any offense’s detection rate has always been close
to zero. High recidivism rates convinced many authorities, particularly
those in latter-day France and England and the present-day United States,

that prisons are not able to reform or rehabilitate; they no longer bothered to
pursue such laudable aims. These countries’ penal codes served to perform
two functions: to avenge by punishment and to separate the offender from
society, either through imposition of the death penalty or perpetual
warehousing in secure institutions. There was no parole or early release for
good behavior. For many years, England achieved the required separation
of offenders from society by shipping convicts to Australia. Napoleon
Bonaparte established the “Safety Islands” in French-colonized South
American and Caribbean territories as a wastebin for those the law
adjudged to be the irreclaimable dregs of society. Prisoners were dumped
where they could no longer threaten public safety and where their
punishment was considered far worse than the swift and humane chop of
the guillotine.

Charrière escaped after just six weeks in French Guiana by traveling a
thousand grueling miles in an open boat through shark-infested waters to
Colombia, where leprosy and other brutal diseases were rampant. He ate
bugs for nourishment, chewed betel nuts to get high, and was befriended by
a tribe who gave him young virgins to worship him and bear his children.

Recaptured, he suffered two years in solitary confinement on a
starvation diet. In thirteen years he tried nine times to escape. Charrière was
eventually sent to the notorious Devil’s Island, a place from which no one
had ever escaped. The book follows him through every moment, every
hardship, and every incredible attempt to leave the horrid life that had
robbed him of his freedom. We endure the struggle alongside Charrière,
urging him on with every page. His final escape, described in breathless
detail, is one of the most incredible tests of human cunning, will, and
endurance ever documented.

“He ate bugs for nourishment, chewed betel nuts to get high, and
was befriended by a tribe who gave him young virgins to worship
him and bear his children.”

Several journalists, authors, and reviewers have since accused Charrière
of not writing the book on his own. It is said he stole the script from René
Belbenoit (whose Dry Guillotine won a Pulitzer), represented adventures of

his fellow inmates as his own, and fabricated much of the rest. Who cares?
The end result is magnificent.

Charrière incorporates survival themes similar to those in The Count of
Monte Cristo and The Shawshank Redemption, and I have yet to be
incarcerated in a prison whose library is not littered with several well-
thumbed copies of Papillon. It teaches all inmates to never give up the
fight, and that even when there seems no way out the way of the warrior,
win or lose, is the correct way. It more significantly inspires us to fight
against all forms of adversity, not merely those meted out in confinement.

The Salvation Islands

“When Napoleon set up the penal settlements and they said to him, ‘Who
are you going to have to look after these hard cases?’ he answered, ‘Harder
cases still.’”
—from Papillon

FRENCH GUIANA WAS FIRST USED as a place of exile during the Revolution,
but it wasn’t until 1852 that the French Emperor Napoleon III established a
permanent penal colony or bagne there. What in time came to be known
collectively as “Devil’s Island” was actually comprised of a mainland
prison on the outskirts of the capitol, Cayenne, and the infamous Îles du
Salut (Salvation Islands), so called because earlier settlers in French Guiana
were driven there by the malaria, storms, and inhospitable jungles of the
mainland. Indeed, so awful were conditions in the penal colony that until
1884 the French government transported only African and Arab convicts to
Guiana.

“Inmates were exposed upon arrival to a brutal cocktail of
dysentery, consumption, and yellow fever. They were forced to
work cutting timber or constructing the infamous ‘Route Zero’
road.”

Inmates were exposed upon arrival to a brutal cocktail of dysentery,
consumption, and yellow fever. They were forced to work cutting timber or
constructing the infamous “Route Zero” road out of Kourou under a blazing
tropical sun. A huge number of the 80,000 bagnards sent to French Guiana
did not survive the terms of their sentences; for most, escape—by sea or
through impenetrable jungle to Dutch Guiana or Brazil—was a death
sentence in itself.
The Îles du Salut offshore were reserved for the most dangerous and
disruptive prisoners. Royale and Saint-Joseph housed the solitary
confinement units, while the Île du Diable (Devil’s Island) was reserved for
political prisoners such as Alfred Dreyfus. Before Dreyfus’s case the French

public remained blissfully unaware of conditions on Devil’s Island. Indeed,
it took reports in 1923 from investigative journalist Albert Londres and
inmate René Belbenoit’s 1938 memoir Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among
the Living Dead to finally turn public opinion in favor of closing the camp.

The penal colony was slowly phased out between 1938 and the early
1950s. In 1946 French Guiana became an overseas département of France,
much like Guadeloupe or Martinique. Devil’s Island is now a tourist
attraction, while the Île Royale now serves as a tracking station for the
European Space Agency’s rocket launch site at Kourou.

The Dreyfus Affair

WHEN PAPILLON IS FINALLY SENT to the Île du Diable, the previously escape-
proof island reserved for political prisoners, he draws strength from the
memory of Alfred Dreyfus, the most famous inmate in the penal colony’s
long history. But who was this man whose imprisonment sent shockwaves
throughout the French Republic and whose case achieved such notoriety
that it became known simply as “The Affair”?

In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish Captain in the French Army,
was convicted of selling military secrets to Germany and sentenced to life
imprisonment on Devil’s Island. The evidence against him was decidedly
flimsy, and it was widely thought that anti-Semitic elements within the
army had simply made him a convenient scapegoat for a lapse in security.
The right-wing press, however, seized on the case as proof of a wider
Jewish conspiracy against the republic, and even when new evidence came
to light proving beyond doubt Dreyfus’s innocence, the military
establishment scandalously chose to cover up the matter instead and keep
him in French Guiana.

“[Papillon drew] strength from the memory of Alfred Dreyfus, the
most famous inmate in the penal colony’s long history.”

What followed quickly grew into a political firestorm, as Dreyfus’s case
became a touchstone for a wider schism between the reactionary
establishment on one side and radical social elements on the other. While
Dreyfus himself wasted away on Devil’s Island, France divided itself into
Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards. Anti-Semitic riots flared and activists on
both sides used the case as a springboard to launch a wider debate on such
issues as militant nationalism, the case for a Jewish homeland in Palestine,
and the separation of church and state.

“The Dreyfus affair inspired one of the most famous and
influential pieces of political journalism in history: … [Émile
Zola’s ‘J’Accuse!’]”

The Dreyfus affair inspired one of the most famous and influential
pieces of political journalism in history. On January 13, 1898, the French
novelist and social reformer Émile Zola was moved to post an open letter to
the president of the republic in the literary newspaper L’Aurore outlining
the minutiae of Dreyfus’s case. Entitled “J’Accuse!” (“I Accuse!”), Zola’s
piece denounced both the falsified evidence that led to Dreyfus’s
imprisonment and the cover-up that followed when it became clear that a
certain Major Esterhazy was guilty of having sold the secrets to Germany.
“La verité est en marche et rien ne l’arretera” (“Truth is on the march and
nothing can stop it”), he wrote. Indeed, when the French Army prosecuted
Zola for libel the consequent publicity simply added more fuel to the wider
debate. Left-wing groups that had formerly been divided now joined forces
to become a powerful presence in the French parliament, while the rise in
anti-Semitic feeling invoked by Dreyfus’s perceived treachery convinced
Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl that Jews could never find a home in
non-Jewish societies. As a result, he founded the worldwide Zionist
movement that eventually resulted in the birth of the state of Israel.

As for Dreyfus himself, in 1899 he was finally brought back to France
for a retrial after five long years on Devil’s Island. Diaries of his time in
French Guiana were published in 1901 as Five Years of My Life. While his
innocence was not now in doubt, he was nonetheless made to wait until
1906 for a full pardon. Restored to his former rank, he went on to perform
with distinction in defense of the country that had used him so badly.

Dreyfus’s diaries are still in print. Further information can be found in The Affair: The Case of Alfred
Dreyfus, by Jean-Denis Bredin.

Adaptation

IN 1973 Papillon was adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton
Trumbo for a high-profile movie of the same name. Trumbo is perhaps
more famous for being blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and for having
scripted Spartacus and Roman Holiday. Directed by Franklin Schaffner
(Planet of the Apes and the war biopic Patton), Papillon loosely followed
the structure of Charrière’s book and starred Steve McQueen as the film’s
eponymous hero and Dustin Hoffman—already a big name thanks to his
roles in The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy—as Papillon’s friend and
accomplice Dega. The film is notable for the brooding tropical heat of its
cinematography, as well as for the strong performances of its two leads.
Steve McQueen, of course, was the premier action hero of his day. He often
played tough, uncompromising hard cases, but McQueen was praised for a
hitherto unseen vulnerable side that he brought to the character as Papillon
slowly wastes away in solitary confinement. For those curious to see
Charrière in the flesh but who are unable to acquire a copy of The Butterfly
Affair, the DVD of Papillon also contains a short feature entitled
“Magnificent Rebel” that includes footage of Henri Charrière on set and
reminiscing about his time on Devil’s Island.

Read on

From Gulags to Dungeons
Books That Hold Us Captive

ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nobel Prize-winning author Solzhenitsyn first came to the attention of the
West in 1962 with this short, stunning novella about a typical day in a
Stalinist labor camp as experienced by ordinary prisoner Ivan Denisovich
Shukhov. Solzhenitsyn had himself spent a decade in a gulag for making
derogatory remarks about Stalin in a letter, and his account of inching
through the bitter cold, surviving from minute to minute, is every bit as
powerful as Charrière’s account of his time in solitary confinement on the
Île Royale.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
by Alexandre Dumas

Falsely accused of treason, Edmond Dantés is arrested on his wedding day
and imprisoned in the imposing island fortress of If. After staging a
dramatic escape he sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte
Cristo and revenge himself on those responsible for his imprisonment.
Based on a true story, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great literary
adventure novels and a masterpiece about one man’s obsession with escape
and vengeance.

“Discipline & Punish is a tour de force that draws from history,
philosophy, and social science to establish why societies choose to
imprison their citizens.”

“HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK
REDEMPTION”
by Stephen King

Winning movie fame as The Shawshank Redemption by Frank Darabont,
Stephen King’s fairy tale of confinement and hope originally appeared in
King’s 1982 collection Different Seasons alongside “The Body,” which
would later be brought to film as Stand by Me. “Hope Springs Eternal: Rita
Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” follows the story of terribly
abused prisoner Andy Dufresne, who—both metaphorically and in reality—
escapes into dreams of the movies. As the movie poster said: “Fear can hold
you prisoner.... Hope can set you free.”

DISCIPLINE & PUNISH: THE BIRTH OF THE PRISON
by Michel Foucault

Both an in-depth history of the French penal system in particular and a
peerless dissection of the rationale behind Western punishment systems in
general, Discipline & Punish is a tour de force that draws from history,
philosophy, and social science to establish why societies choose to imprison
their citizens. It also contains fascinating insight into the interplay between
prisoner and state—and why even the most brutal criminals are capable of
being seen as heroes.

Further Reading

LES QUATRE VÉRITÉS DE PAPILLON
by Georges Ménager

Only available in French, this book looks into details of the police
investigations into the murder that led to Papillon’s imprisonment.

SPACE IN THE TROPICS: FROM CONVICTS TO ROCKETS IN FRENCH GUIANA
by Peter Redfield

A gripping book that compares the Franco-European Ariane rocket program
with the penal experiments on Devil’s Island.

Also Consider

MR. NICE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Howard Marks (Canongate Books, 2002)

During the mid-1980s Howard Marks had forty-three aliases, eighty-nine
phone lines, and owned twenty-five companies trading throughout the
world. Bars, recording studios, offshore banks—all were money laundering
vehicles serving his core business: dope dealing. At the height of Marks’s
career he was smuggling consignments of up to thirty tons of marijuana and
had contact with organizations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA, and the
Mafia. He was busted following a worldwide operation by the DEA and
sentenced to serve twenty-five years in prison at Terre Haute Penitentiary in
Indiana. He was released in April 1995 after serving seven years of his
sentence. Told with humor, charm, and candor and featuring pages of
photographs, Mr. Nice is his own extraordinary story. Mr. Nice is one of the
bestselling memoirs in Britain in recent memory, topping both The Sunday
Times (London) hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. It’s been
translated into eight languages, and this edition offers American readers
their first-ever opportunity to read this riveting book.

“Frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal.”

—GQ

“A folk legend … Howard Marks has huge charisma. He sounds like
Richard Burton and looks like a Rolling Stone.”

—The Daily Mail (London)

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FOOTNOTES

* I wrote this introduction in May 1969. The book was published in France in June of that same year.
By April of 1970 it had sold one million copies there. As is perhaps inevitable when a writer has sold
so phenomenally and has been so lionized as M. Charrière, the authenticity of his work has recently
been questioned in some quarters. On March 17, 1970, a press conference was held in Pans by
Editions Laffont and the author for the purpose of answering such charges. Charrière reaffirmed,
allowing for lapses of memory in some instances as to dates and minor facts, that the book was as
accurate and true as he could make it. After all, as he said, he did not go into “that hell” with a
typewriter.

* Worth about $1250 in 1970.

* Chief Executioner in 1932.