Henri Charrière, probably better known by his
nickname Papillon, was born
November 16, 1906 in
Saint-Etienne-de-Lugdarès1 in the
Ardèche, a region in the South of
France. The
autobiography he published in 1969 brought him
fame and fortune, but his life and his exploits are tainted by doubt and to this day the
debate continues on many aspects of his life. Whether or not he wrote
Papillon is one of these debates.
Henri Charrière's troubled youth - his mother died when Henri was 11 years old - led him to
sign a
contract with the
French Navy at the age of 17. Apparently Henri was about to be
convicted of a
violent crime, and this signing provided an
escape route. However, the
hard and disciplined
regime of the
Navy brought him close to
despair and he resorted to
mutilating his own
thumb to get out of his contract.
Life in the
rural Ardèche quickly bored him out of his wits, however, and so he left for
Paris. During his
stint with the Navy he had made some
acquaintances that were part of the Parisian
crime scene. In Paris he sought them out and quickly became part of the Paris
underworld, doing his part working out of the
Montmartre district. Henri slowly becomes a known
crime figure and during this period of stealing, breaking into safes and, as some say, pimping, he acquires his nickname
Papillon2.
Then, in 1930, life turns
sour for Henri Charrière when he is
accused of
murdering Roland Legrand. Following a questionable
trial, he receives a
life sentence of
forced labor on
October 27, 1931. He is shipped off to
French Guyana, where
France maintains its own
penal colony. He arrives in the
colony in November 1933, and there follow a number of
escapes on the part of
Papillon. He is
recaptured a couple of times, but finally manages to escape to
Venezuela in 1944, and manages to stay out of the hands of the
authorities. He marries a
woman named Rita, with whom he owns a number of
restaurants and
cafés.
Then, in 1967, an
earthquake hits the city
Caracas, the
capital of Venezuela, where Henri owns a
night club. His night club doesn't survive and he is left a
ruined man. He comes up with the
manuscript of
Papillon, which he first tries to have published as a
romance novel. The publisher thinks it wiser to
publish it as an
autobiography, but after numerous
press conferences with difficult
questions and evasive
answers, he finally admits that the
adventures in
Papillon were not just his own, but a
collection of other peoples' adventures, too.
Regardless, the
book makes Henri a
famous and
rich man and initially he returns to
France. He soon moves to
Spain, however, when he has to admit that his
autobiography is not as
autobiographical as autobiographies normally go. He settles in the city
Fuengirola,
Andalucia, in Southern Spain. He has a few other moments in the
spotlights, when he publishes a
sequel to
Papillon titled
Banco. This raises the
skeptics again, who maintain that the two books differ too much in
style to have been written by the same
author.
At the start of 1973 Henri Charrière falls
ill and is soon
diagnosed with
throat cancer. Before he dies on
July 29, 1973, he is
consulted in connection with the
filming of
Papillon, wherein
Steve McQueen is to play the
leading role.
Right after I wrote the above wu I saw the movie for the first time.
The movie is definitely worth watching, but read the book first.
It's definitely the better of the two.
Sources:
http://gofree.indigo.ie/~james079/pape.html
http://www.sinclairos.freeserve.co.uk/Papillon/PAPILLON2.htm
http://www.jecs.nl/~papillon/
1 My source states 'Saint-Etienne-de Lugares', but there is no place in the Ardèche to be found with that name.
2 Some sources say the nickname was pinned to him earlier, during his stint in the Navy, and was inspired by the tattoo of a butterfly on his chest. Papillon is, of course, the French word for butterfly.
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