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Cover of Papillon by Henri Charrière

Papillon

Henri Charrière

  • 560 pages · about 9 hours
  • First published 1969
  • 87 editions
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1 About this book

Papillon (French: , lit. "butterfly") is a novel written by Henri Charrière, first published in France on 30 April 1969. Papillon is Charrière's nickname. The novel supposedly details Papillon's incarceration and subsequent escape from the French penal colony of French Guiana, and covers a 14-year period between 1931 and 1945.

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.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: a true life story and a long read.

  • Biography
  • Escapes
  • Prisoners
  • Autobiographical fiction
  • Prison Life in Fiction
  • Personal narratives
  • Biographies
  • Vietnamese language books

2 About Henri Charrière

1906–1973

Henri Charrière (French pronunciation:; 16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer who was convicted of murder in 1931 by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote the 1969 novel Papillon, a memoir of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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