Outrage: An Anarchist Memoir of the Penal Colony

by Clément Duval, Marianne Enckell (Introduction), Michael Shreve (Translation)

“Theft exists only through the exploitation of man by man…when Society refuses you the right to exist, you must take it…the policeman arrested me in the name of the Law, I struck him in the name of Liberty.” In 1887, Clément Duval joined the tens of thousands of convicts sent to the “dry guillotine” of the French penal colonies. Few survived and fewer were able to tell the stories of their life in that hell. Duval spent fourteen years doing hard labor—espousing the values of anarchism and demonstrating the ideals by being a living example the entire time—before making his daring escape and arriving in New York City, welcomed by the Italian and French anarchists there. This is much more than an historical document about the anarchist movement and the penal colony. It is a remarkable story of survival by one man’s self-determination, energy, courage, loyalty, and hope. It was thanks to being true and faithful to his ideals that Duval survived life in this hell. Unlike the well-known prisoner Papillon, who arrived and dramatically escaped soon after Duval, he encouraged his fellow prisoners to practice mutual aid, through their deeds and not just their words. It is a call to action for mindful, conscious people to fight for their rights to the very end, to never give up or give in. More than just a story of a life or a testament of ideals, here is a monument to the human spirit and a war cry for freedom and justice.

Genres: History, Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Clément Duval (1850 – 1935) was a famous French anarchist and criminal. His ideas concerning individual reclamation were greatly influential in later shaping illegalism. According to Paul Albert, "The story of Clement Duval was lifted and, shorn of all politics, turned into the bestseller Papillon."

Duval served as a member of the fifth infantry battalion in the Franco-Prussian War, where he was wounded by a mortar and contracted smallpox. As a result, he spent four of the next 10 years in a hospital. Unable to work, Duval turned to theft.

Subsequent to his spending a year in prison for the theft of 80 francs, Duval joined the anarchists of The Panther of Batignolles.

On 25 October 1886, Duval broke into the mansion of a Parisian socialite and stole 15,000 francs before accidentally setting the house on fire. He was caught only two weeks later after trying to fence the stolen goods, stabbing a policeman named Rossignol several times during his arrest. (The policeman survived his wounds.) Duval's trial drew crowds of supporters and ended in chaos when Duval was dragged from the court, crying, "Long live anarchy!" He was condemned to death, but his sentence was later commuted to hard labor on Devil's Island, French Guiana.

In a letter printed in the November 1886 issue of the anarchist paper Le Révolté, Duval famously declared: "Le vol n'est que la restitution, opéré à son profit par un individu conscient des richesses produites collectivement, et indûment accaparée par quelques-uns." ("Theft is but restitution carried out by an individual to his own benefit, being conscious of another's undue monopolization of wealth.")

Duval spent the next 14 years in prison, attempting escape over 20 times. In April 1901, he succeeded and fled to New York City, where he lived until the age of 85.

In 1929, Duval's memoir, Memorie Autobiografiche, was translated by Luigi Galleani and published in Italian. In 1980, Marianne Enckell, at C.I.R.A. in Lausanne, recovered part of Duval's original manuscript, and had it published as Outrage: An Anarchist Memoir of the Penal Colony.

Reviews

[Dawn]

the code severely punishes the worker to whom
society refuses the right to survival and who has the courage to take what he needs (but does not have) where there is excess. Ah! Then they treat him
like a thief, they arraign him in the courts and exile him to a penal colony until the end his days.
That's the logic of the present society.
Well, it's for this crime that I am here: for not recognizing these people's right to die of excess while the producers, the creators of all the social wealth die of hunger. Yes, I am the enemy of individual property and I long time ago
I agreed with Proudhon that property is theft.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duval provides a much different picture of the French penal colonies than the popular view. He describes, but does limit himself to, the hellish conditions and arbitrary punishments, and chronicles his attempts to escape - with less detail than might be desired. This is a work informed by the anarchist ideal, which he held on to throughout his imprisonment. He and his fellow anarchists refused to be degraded by the conditions and the guards, and managed to maintain their dignity.

[Peter Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although repetitive and sometimes hard to read, in the end Duval gives a lesson in being conscience.

I think the message of the book is "don't get caught."