Papillon - The saga of human endurance

Man's survival instincts and faith in life is legendary. These qualities made mankind the leaders of the world.

Papillon is one of the greatest books I have come across in recent times. It was first introduced to me by my English teacher way back in nineties. But I couldn't get the opportunity to read it till recently. One evening on my regular train journeys to home from work, I bought this book from a young boy, who was selling popular English books in trains.

Papillon is Originally written in french and published in 1970. I bought the English translation by Patrik O' brian.

Papillon is a real life story of  Mr Henri Charriere  (Papillon is nick name), who was convicted by French government for a crime he  never committed in his life, when he was just below 25. Story is narrated to have taken place in a 14 year period of his conviction a from 1931 to 1945.

The convicts of that time were considered as pests by the French colonial government and the jails were made to systematically and brutally tame them. A person who enters in to the life sentence in his prime age will come of these cells either as mad or dead. These confinements are never meant to make the convicts  better people.

Sensing this danger Papillon' s aim and efforts were only to escape from the prisons. Every time he escaped, he was caught and put back in to rigorous confinements by the cruel authorities. The duration between the escape and confinements were filled with adventurous journeys thru geographically varied places with culturally different  people. This is not only a riveting and gripping story of adventures of Pappillon but also about the extra ordinary  love between people.

Story depiction is very elaborate and detailed and so we feel very much related to the situations and characters.

This book is all about the importance of having a 'never say die' attitude towards life.

It is a must read and I strongly recommend it to you.