Papillon biography

French writer (–)

Henri Charrière (French pronunciation:[ɑ̃ʁiʃaʁjɛʁ]; 16 November &#;– 29 July ) was a French writer, convicted of murder in by the French courts and pardoned in He wrote the novel Papillon, a memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana. While Charrière claimed that Papillon was largely true, modern researchers believe that much of the book’s material came from other inmates, rather than Charrière himself. Charrière denied committing the murder, although he freely admitted to having committed various other petty crimes (notably when he was a procurer) prior to his incarceration.

Biography

Early life

Charrière was born on 16 November at Saint-Étienne-de-Lugdarès, Ardèche, France. He had two older sisters. His mother died when he was ten. In at seventeen, he enlisted in the French Navy and served for two years. After that, he became a member of the Paris underworld. He later married and had a daughter.

Imprisonment

Main article: Papillon (book)

The version of his life presented in his semi-biographical novel, Papillon, claimed that Charrière was convicted on 26 October of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strongly denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. He had married Georgette Fourel at the town hall of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on December 22, (They divorced on 8 July by decision of the Paris High Court.) After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana.

According to the book, he made his first escape on 28 November and was joined by fellow prisoners André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. 37 days later, the tr

Henri Charrière ( – ) was a French petty criminal who was incarcerated for murder in a penal colony in French Guiana. He famously escaped the brutal prison by building a raft, and in he published the book Papillon, detailing his experiences as a prisoner. Although Charrière claimed the book was autobiographical, it is believed that many of the experiences he described were in fact those of other inmates, and so Papillon is considered a work of fiction.

Arrest and Incarceration

Charrière, who was orphaned at the age of ten, enlisted in the French Navy as a teenager and served two years. Upon returning home to Paris, he immersed himself in the French criminal underworld and soon made a career for himself as a petty thief and safecracker. By some accounts, he may have made money as a pimp as well.

In , a low-level gangster from Montmartre named Roland Legrand–some reports list his surname as Lepetit–was killed, and Charrière was arrested for his murder. Although Charrière maintained his innocence, he was nevertheless convicted of killing Legrand. He was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the St. Laurent du Maroni penal colony on French Guiana, and was transported there from Caen in  

The conditions at the penal colony were brutal, and Charrière struck up a tenuous friendship with two of his fellow inmates, Joanes Clousiot and Andre Maturette. In November , the three men escaped from St. Laurent in a sma

prison escape memoir by Henri Charrière

Not to be confused with Le Papillon des étoiles.

Papillon (French:[papijɔ̃], lit. "butterfly") is a novel written by Henri Charrière, first published in France on 30 April Papillon is Charrière's nickname. The novel details Papillon's purported incarceration and subsequent escape from the French penal colony of French Guiana, and covers a year period between and While Charrière claimed that Papillon was largely true, modern researchers believe that much of the book’s material came from other inmates, rather than Charrière himself.

Synopsis

The book is an account of a year period in Papillon's life (October 26, , to October 18, ), beginning when he was wrongly convicted of murder in France and sentenced to a life of hard labor at the Bagne de Cayenne, the penal colony of Cayenne in French Guiana known as Devil's Island. He eventually escaped from the colony and settled in Venezuela, where he lived and prospered.

After a brief stay at a prison in Caen, Papillon was put aboard a vessel bound for South America, where he learned about the brutal life that prisoners endured at the prison colony. Violence and murders were common among the convicts. Men were attacked for many reasons, including money, which most kept in a charger (a hollow metal cylinder concealed in the rectum; also known as a plan d'evasion, plan, or "escape suppository"). Papillon befriended Louis Dega, a former banker convicted of counterfeiting. He agreed to protect Dega from attackers trying to get his charger.

Upon arriving at the penal colony, Papillon claimed to be ill and was sent to the infirmary. There he collaborated with two men, Clousiot and André Maturette, to escape from the prison. They planned to use a sailboat acquired with the help of the associated leper colony at an island near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The Maroni River carried them to the Atlantic Ocea