‘Papillon’ by Henri Charriere… an Experience of the 19th Century French Penal System.

In 1969, Henri Charriere published his memoir, Papillon, which follows his life’s adventure once he is wrongly committed to life imprisonment for manslaughter and thrown into France’s harsh and uncivilised penal system in the middle of the 20th century. But Papillon, as was his nickname due to a large butterfly tattoo on his chest, was not to take…