Product Description

The diary of Jean-Dominique Bauby who, with his left eyelid (the only surviving muscle after a massive stroke) dictated a remarkable book about his experiences locked inside his body. A masterpiece and a bestseller in France, it is now a major motion picture directed by Julian Schnabel. On 8 December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke and slipped into a coma. When he regained consciousness three weeks later, the only muscle left functioning was in his left eyelid although his mind remained as active and alert as it had ever been. He spent most of 1996 writing this book, letter by letter, blinking as an alphabet was repeatedly read out to him. 'The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly' was published in France on Thursday 6th March 1997. It was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. And then, three days later, he died. 'The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly', which records Bauby's lonely existence, is probably the most remarkable book about the triumph of the human spirit, the ability to invent a life for oneself in the most appalling of circumstances, that you will ever read. It has now been made into a captivating film, directed by Julian Schnabel and starring Mathieu Amalric, which was the winner of the award for Best Director at Cannes and nominated for the Palm d'Or.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1453 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-07
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
On December 8, 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby's life was forever altered when a part of his body he'd never heard of--his brain stem--was rendered inactive. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, his exquisitely painful memoir, is neither a triumphant account of recovery nor a journey into the abyss of self-pity. Instead, it is a tender testament to the power of language and love. At 43, Bauby was defined by success, wit and charisma. But in the course of a few bewildering minutes, the editor-in-chief of French Elle became a victim of the rare locked-in syndrome. The only way he could express his frustration, however, was by blinking his left eye. The rest of his body could no longer respond. Bauby was determined to escape the paralysis of his diving bell and free the butterflies of his imagination. And with the help of ESA, "a hit parade in which each letter is placed according to the frequency of its use in the French language," Bauby did so. Visitors, and eventually his editor, would read each letter aloud and he would blink at the right one. Slowly--painstakingly-- words, sentences, paragraphs and even this graceful book emerged.

Bauby relays the horrors and small graces of his struggle, which range from awaking one day to discover his right eye being sewn shut to realising the significance of Father's Day, a holiday previously absent from his family's "emotional calendar": "Today we spent the whole of the symbolic day together, affirming that even a rough sketch, a shadow, a tiny fragment of a dad is still a dad." The author makes it clear that being locked in doesn't kick open the doors of perception, but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is nonetheless a celebration of life. Jean Dominique-Bauby died of a heart attack on March 9, 1997, two days after his book was published in France.

Review
'Everyone in the country should own at least one copy.' Guardian 'The most extraordinary book of the year.' Daily Telegraph 'Read this book and fall back in love with life.' Edmund White 'The most remarkable memoir of our time.' Cynthia Ozick 'Life-enhancing and devastating in equal measure -- everyone should read it' Gloss magazine

From the Publisher
The cover is a limited edition (1 of 2000) designed by artist Sam Poritt. Sam Poritt was born in 1979 and lives and works in London. He was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2002 and has participated in exhibitions in London and Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

If This Book Doesn't Make You Sit Back & Think, I Don't Know What Will
I find it hard to write about this novel, for what can I say that can justify the feelings & emotions this book invokes in the reader. A novel written by a man whose only form of communication is to blink his left eye when a visitor recites the correct letter, where Bauby must have spent hours agonising over every word, sentence and paragraph whilst many writers will write chapters in half the time, similarly, as a reader I find that I also spend more time pondering over each sentence, giving myself time to digest what has just been said - this is truly a novel where every word counts, because the writer didn`t have the leisure of wasting pages with words that have no worth. This may be a short novel, but it takes time to read, not only because you'll want to re-read whole paragraphs at a time, but because, on countless occasions, you'll read something that will make you pause for a while, put the book down, and simply sit and think. Bauby's own contemplation rubs off on the reader, where he cannot fill in all the details, the reader appeals to their imagination and allows their mind to fill in the blanks of horror and fear.

Bauby's style deserves a mention. Whether through skill, detachment, selflessness, or purely based on the difficulty of communication, Bauby adopts a style that is not only honest, but subtle, to the point, without pity, and riddled with dark humour. If this was an overly dramatic novel full of misery and self pity then I would not be wasting my time writing a review. One thing that really struck me while reading this book was Bauby's sense of acceptance of it all. He describes his life, his routine, the inconsiderate behaviour of members of the hospital staff, his dreams, his family, his friends with such an acceptance and down to earth honesty that you can't help but to respect his character, which make his moments of weakness and grief all the more powerful and touching - because this is a man who does not feel sorry for himself even though he has more right to than most.

The novel itself is an easy (language wise, not content), short read that is highly reminiscent of children's books with it's large type and short chapters. Every sentence is to the point in such a way that you cannot simply skim paragraphs but have to devour them carefully, sentence by sentence. Bauby is a clever, witty man and much of his humour can easily be unnoticed by skim reading. Many of the sadder moments are laced with jokes, and though at first it may seem like Bauby is protecting the reader by making his situation seem not so bad, after a while you begin to suspect that it's not for anyone else's benefit but his own, because without this humour, he'd have to accept just how dire his situation is. It's a way for him to cope, and prevents the novel from becoming an incredibly dark read. One of these moments is when he talks about how, before the stroke he wanted to write a novel based on `The Count Monte-Cristo' and thought it was a funny coincidence how he has turned out like the main character of the novel (paralysed). Now, he is planning to write a vast saga where the main character is a runner, with the chapter ending with, `You never know. It might work'. Though it may seem like a dismissive, half hearted comment, when you look back and see how hard he must have laboured to write this chapter to get to this point, you realise that, through the joke, he's actually being serious.

There's no doubt this is a touching novel. The last lines speak for themselves. As I mentioned at the start, this is a hard novel to talk about content wise, and in a way I feel that to try and analyse what Bauby has said is to dilute it, to take away from it's essence. Really, it's a novel that speaks for itself if you let it.

A Critic once said, `Read this book and fall back in love with life'. If I were you, I' take his advice.

A remarkable insight and a very moving book
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly is a truly extraordinary book and gives us a unique insight into a thankfully rare condition known as locked in syndrome. In 1995 Jean Dominique Bauby, Editor in Chief of Elle Magazine, suffered a massive stroke which rendered him completely paralysed and speechless. Communicating by blinking his left eyelid he painstakingly dictated this book and died two days after its publication. The ability of Bauby to keep his composure in the face of such a terrifying experience seems to be attributable to a futile belief in his ultimate recovery and a side effect of this syndrome where sufferers do not appear to experience terror, rather tranquillity tapered by sadness. Few sufferers have expressed a wish to die thus demonstrating the strength of the human spirit and the triumph of hope over adversity. There are moments of deep sadness and one of the most poignant passages describes father's day on the beach when Bauby longs to reach out and hug his young son. However, at times the book is a celebration of his former charmed life and the richness of his narrative is remarkable as he recalls his past in vivid detail. Very thought provoking and well worth the read

A wondeful, captivating, harrowing yet joyful read.
Words have trouble expressing how deeply moving Bauby's work is, especially when one knows he finally succumbed to the locked-in syndrome shortly after completing the book. His disability held him captive yet somehow gave his mind the freedom to wander through uncharted depths of human thinking, guiding the reader through his sorrows, joys, appreciations of the small pleasures of life, and his frustration both with the way people perceived him and his inability to walk amongst them. It is a little book of incredible power which I recommend to anyone becoming disillusioned with their lives.