Wild Boy (12 page)

“lively joy”
[vif sentiment de joie]
:
le Publiciste
, September 2, 1800, in Gineste, p. 477.

“very lively cries of joy”
[des cris de joie très vifs]
:
le Courrier des spectacles
, September 2, 1800, in Gineste, p. 478.

married and widowed twice: death certificate of Clair Saussol, Rodez, February 28, 1822, Archives Départementales de l’Aveyron.

“his old guardian, whom he appears to love very much”:
Gazette de France
, August 9, 1800, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 18.

Often, he went hungry: Itard, p. 88. When he could get food . . . by himself: Ibid., p. 19. Locked in a dark closet: Ibid., p. 95.

about forty boys and twenty girls: Institute for Deaf-Mutes enrollment records, 1801, National Archives, Paris.

For descriptions of student life at the Institute, see Harlan Lane’s
When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf
, pp. 8–13. The separate gardens for girls and boys can be seen in contemporary floor plans in unedited manuscripts in the archives of the Institute for Deaf-Mutes, now known as the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.

Chapter Eight

“The child . . . interesting being”: Itard, p. xxiv.

“I have often . . . this situation”: Ibid., p. 13.

“condemned . . . in our asylums”: Philippe Pinel, “Report to the Société des Observateurs de l’Homme concerning the child known by the name of ‘Sauvage de l’Aveyron,’” in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 58.

“Debtors are incarcerated . . . epileptics, imbeciles. . . .” Mercier, p. 160.

“subterranean dungeons . . . in the roof”: Ibid., p. 163.

“to tear a child . . . boredom in an institution”: Itard, p. 11.

“I never shared this unfavorable opinion” and “I dared to conceive certain hopes”: Ibid., p. 7.

Chapter Nine

“I believed . . . tastes and inclinations”: Ibid., p. 11.

“all the patience . . . enlightened teacher,” “It was necessary . . . happy in his own way,” “sleeping, eating . . . the fields,” and “scampers”: Ibid., p. 12.

“I have many . . . great satisfaction”: Ibid., p. 64.

“was the beginning . . . signs of satisfaction” and “I shall perhaps . . . life’s earliest joys”: Ibid., pp. 24 and 25.

“A ray of sun . . . child of nature”: Ibid., p. 18.

“cry of joy”: Ibid., p. 12.

“There, giving vent . . . incredible eagerness”: Ibid., p. 13.

Chapter Ten

“
. . . in moments of great happiness”: Ibid., p. 33.

“an almost ordinary child who cannot speak”: Ibid., p. 49.

“People may say . . . childish play”: Ibid., p. 25.

“He is often heard . . . sweetness” and “I am somewhat . . . name of Julie”: Ibid., p. 33.

Chapter Eleven

Victor’s friendship with the astronomer’s daughter: editors’ note to article in
Décade philosophique
, 1800, in Gineste, p. 481.

“in moments of great happiness”: Itard, p. 33.

“Everything put . . . communication of ideas”: Ibid., p. 67.

“I have . . . shown him toys . . . before his bonfire”: Ibid., p. 20.

“It would have been inhuman to insist further”: Ibid., p. 31.

“despairing of success”: Ibid., p. 32.

“trembling in every limb . . . towards the door,” “With every appearance of anger,” “his head directly . . . the chasm,” and “He was pale . . . bed and wept”: Ibid., p. 44.

“contented himself . . . in tears”: Ibid., p. 45.

But after that day, Victor . . . ran away: Ibid., pp. 44–45.

“escaped,” “shed many tears on seeing her again,” and “When Madame Guérin . . . began to weep”: Ibid., pp. 24–25.

Chapter Twelve

“The child . . . early success”: Ibid., p. 48.

Chapter Thirteen

“There is always the same . . . stormy wind”: Ibid., p. 92.

“such was the effect . . . wild than ever,” “an independent life, happy and regretted,” and “straight and regular . . . wild nature is composed”: Ibid., pp. 23–24.

“garland of flowers . . . swans”: Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, in Herriot, p. 25.

“Madame Récamier . . . child of nature,” “the young savage . . . attracted,” “startling greed,” “all the delicacies he could filch,” “running across . . . rabbit,” and “bundled into . . . nature untamed”: L. C. Wairy,
Mémoires sur la vie privée de Napoléon, sa famille, et sa cour
, vol. 3, Paris: Ladvocat, 1830, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, pp. 108–109.

Chapter Fourteen

“I was obliged . . . does he not speak?”: Itard, p. 26.

“inspiration of really creative imagination”: Ibid., p. 78.

“the most rapid . . . first triumph”: Ibid., p. 32.

“this reading conveyed no meaning to him”: Ibid., p. 61.

“He often stopped . . . of his errand”: Ibid., pp. 71–72.

“I have seen . . . threat, or punishment”: Ibid., p. 91.

“stamp with joy . . . behind his head”: Ibid., p. 57.

“Thus we have instructor . . . grimacing their hardest”: Ibid., p. 86.

“‘Unhappy creature . . . boredom at Bicêtre”: Ibid., p. 73.

“scarcely had I finished . . . bitter grief”: Ibid., p. 74.

Chapter Fifteen

“To speak of . . . judgment on him”: Ibid., p. 52.

“I know, sir . . . diligent” and “essential . . . know the results”: Champagny to Itard, June 13, 1806, in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 133 (date in Gineste, p. 390).

“brilliant hopes”: Itard, p. 40.

“As for me . . . and to distain”: Ibid., p. 52.

“incurable dumbness”: Ibid., p. 86.

“As soon as his governess . . . to go out”: Ibid., p. 93.

Chapter Sixteen

“Hurrying into the street . . . Barrière d’Enfer”: Ibid., p. 93.

“From my window . . . wealth of foliage” and “Along all . . . century-old trees”: Victorien Sardou, in preface to Cain, p. xx.

half a million people: Braudel, p. 248.

Chapter Seventeen

“He turned in the direction . . . gained the forest”: Itard, p. 89.

“he suddenly revived . . . radiant expression,” “In the eyes . . . given him life,” “in a loud and threatening tone,” and “This was always . . . all was forgotten”: Ibid., p. 90.

Chapter Eighteen

“Those generous . . . human heart”: Ibid., p. 87.

“raving maniac”: Ibid., p. 92.

“sitting beside . . . changed his attitude” and “he took the lady . . . his cheeks”: Ibid., p. 97.

the Savage . . . should be sent to . . . Charenton: Chaptal to the Administrators of Charitable Institutions (including the administrators of the Institute for Deaf-Mutes), April 8, 1801, in Gineste, pp. 265–266.

“destiny so strange”: Itard, p. 101.

“those generous feelings which are the glory and happiness of the human heart”: Ibid., p. 87.

“extraordinary young man”: Ibid., p. 101.

“order and discipline”
[l’ordre et la discipline]
: Administrators of Charitable Institutions to the Minister of the Interior, July 13, 1810, in Gineste, p. 448.

“with my deep gratitude”
[de ma profonde reconnaissance]
and “Widow Guérin”
[Veuve Guérin]
: Madame Guérin to the administrators of the Institute for Deaf-Mutes, May 2, 1811, Ibid., p. 454.

list of Victor’s possessions: Madame Guérin to the administrators of the Institute for Deaf-Mutes, July 10, 1811, Ibid.

“A park, a wood . . . virgin forest”: Hugo in Maurois, p. 20.

recognized him by his loping gait: Shattuck, p. 156.

Afterword

“Today he understands . . . efforts that were made”
[Aujourd’ hui il comprend plusieurs choses, sans articuler des mots. . . . Il est resté effaré, à demi sauvage et n’a pu apprendre à parler, malgré les soins qu’on en a pris.]
: Virey, report of 1817, in Gineste, p. 455.

“spoke no more about him”: Itard, pp. 4–5.

“protector”
[protecteur]:
E. Morel, “Notice biographique sur le Dr. Itard,”
Annales de l’éducation des sourds-muets et des aveugles
, 1845, in Gineste, p. 455.

Author’s Note

“It is in the Memoirs . . . positive education”: Séguin in Lane,
Wild Boy
, p. 269.

Arbellot, Guy, et al.
Atlas de la Révolution française
. Vol. 1,
Routes et communications
. Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1987.

Bonnaterre, P.-J.
Notice historique sur le sauvage de l’Aveyron
. Paris: Panckoucke, 1800. Translated by Harlan Lane and reprinted in his
The Wild Boy of Aveyron
, pp. 33–48.

Braudel, Fernand.
The Identity of France
. Vol. 1,
History and Environment
. Translated by Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

Cain, Georges.
Nooks and Corners of Old Paris
. London: E. G. Richards, 1907.

Foulquier-Lavergne, P.
Le Sauvage de l’Aveyron
. Rodez: Imprimerie de Broca, 1875.

Gineste, Thierry.
Victor de l’Aveyron: Dernier enfant sauvage, premier enfant fou
. Paris: Hachette/Pluriel, 1993.

Herriot, Édouard.
Madame Récamier
. Translated by Alys Hallard. New York: Boni and Liveright/London: Heinmann, 1926.

Itard, Jean-Marc-Gaspard.
The Wild Boy of Aveyron
. Translated by George and Muriel Humphrey. New York: Meredith, 1962.

———.
When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf
. New York: Random House, 1984.

Lane, Harlan.
The Wild Boy of Aveyron
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.

Maurois, André.
Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo
. Translated by Gerard Hopkins. New York: Harper, 1956.

Mercier, Louis-Sébastien.
Panorama of Paris: Selections from Le Tableau de Paris
. Based on the translation by Helen Simpson. Jeremy D. Popkin, ed. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.

Shattuck, Roger.
The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron
. London: Quartet Books, 1980.

I would like to thank the many, many people who read (or listened to) drafts and offered advice and encouragement, with special thanks to Dan Bachhuber’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade classes at the J. J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul, Minnesota; the Jerome Foundation, whose Travel and Study Grant Program enabled me to retrace the wild boy’s footsteps in France; Charles Eisendrath of the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan, who helped me find a new writing path; Monsieur Jean Delmas, longtime director of the Rodez archives, who told me so much about the wild boy; Harlan Lane, whose book
The Wild Boy of Aveyron
was invaluable to me in writing this one; my agent, George Nicholson, who believed in this book; and most of all my wonderful husband, Don, who liked the wild boy as much as I did.

Also by Mary Losure

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