Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead

by René Belbenoit

Book Overview

Account of a man who escaped from Devil's Island and made it to Panama and from there to San Francisco and New York where he became a US Citizen.

Here is the story of a man's dauntless courage in the struggle against death, insanity and the atrocities of the French "Guiana Hell". This man was meant to die .... but Rene Belbenoit's one hundred pound body contained a spirit and will that were unconquerable..

Life holds but two alternatives...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4871870626
• ISBN13: 9784871870627
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Ishi Press
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

This book is very elemental. It is written in easy to read and follow text. The experiences in this book are very eye opening and almost inocently told. I read this book in school and enjoyed it back then, but with my older more mature outlook I enjoyed it even more. This is a well written book that should wake in you the need to watch what is being done to prisoners even today. Our treatment is not so harsh, one hopes, but still in some cases just as inhumane. This book is a keeper, one to be shared and pondered upon.

Possibly my favourite book

I'm a little shocked by the tepid reviews of this book. It's one of the most gripping and fascinating books I've ever read. It's the true story of a man sentenced to the penal colony in French Guiana (Devil's Island was a picnic compared to the prison on the mainland). "Papillon" drew on this quite heavily but remains closer to fiction. If you like nonfiction, make sure you read "Dry Guillotine."

A truly gripping read

This is one of the most gripping and fascinating books I've ever read. It's the true story of a man sentenced to the penal colony in French Guiana (Devil's Island was a picnic compared to the prison on the mainland). "Papillon" drew on this quite heavily but remains closer to fiction. If you like nonfiction, make sure you read "Dry Guillotine."

Startling Portrayal of French prison system.

Rene Belbenoit was guilty. There is no denying it, and he immediately owns to the thefts he committed. But the unbelievable hell that he endured on Devil's Island for more than fifteen years was above and beyond suitable punishment. In this tale, Belbenoit describes the harsh realities of not only Devil's Island in particular, but the French justice system of post WWI era. He tells of the millionairs son who is found "unfit for transport" and the two white collar fat cats who get a fraction of his prison sentence for stealing fifty times as much! He describes the "perversions" that men were forced into because of their woman-less circumstances, and how guards who falsely accuse inmates just to get their wine ration.

One of the best books I've ever read.

True story. The movie Papillon comes very substantially from this book by Rene' Belbenoit and perhaps even more than Henri Charriere's own book "Papillon"(see movie credits) "Dry Guillotine" is one of the greatest survival and escape stories of all time, about a convict condemned to the penal colony in French Guiana during the 1920's - 1930's. Chapter after chapter of incredibly horrid conditions in which the clothless prisoners were subjected....malaria, incessant mosquitos, starvation, disease, torture, and even leper colonies, all in the will-defeating complete corruption of the guards and the French Penal administration. Out of over 80,000 men that were sentenced to French Guiana, 65,000 (80%) died there. Makes you happy just to be alive. Belbenoit followed it up with "Hell on Trial"(see review).