Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of AveyronWhat happens when society finds a wild boy alone in the woods and tries to civilize him? A true story from the author of The Fairy Ring. One day in 1798, woodsmen in southern France returned from the forest having captured a naked boy. He had been running wild, digging for food, and was covered with scars. In the village square, people gathered around, gaping and jabbering in words the boy didn’t understand. And so began the curious public life of the boy known as the Savage of Aveyron, whose journey took him all the way to Paris. Though the wild boy’s world was forever changed, some things stayed the same: sometimes, when the mountain winds blew, "he looked up at the sky, made sounds deep in his throat, and gave great bursts of laughter." In a moving work of narrative nonfiction that reads like a novel, Mary Losure invests another compelling story from history with vivid and arresting new life. |
Contents
Section 1 | 5 |
Section 2 | 38 |
Section 3 | 49 |
Section 4 | 60 |
Section 5 | 87 |
Section 6 | 90 |
Section 7 | 108 |
Section 8 | 110 |
Section 9 | 121 |
Section 10 | 137 |
Section 11 | 143 |
Section 12 | 153 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbé Sicard Archives Départementales August 9 began Bicêtre Bonnaterre wrote Bonnaterre's Boy of Aveyron carriage Central School child Clair cold Constans-Saint-Estève courtyard curious dark deaf Départementales de l'Aveyron door escape eyes face fire forest Gazette de France Gineste girls hands happy Ibid imbecile inside Institute for Deaf-Mutes Itard wrote later Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard Journal des débats Julie Lacaune Lait learned lived loped Lucien Bonaparte Madame Guérin Madame Récamier milk Minister Monsieur Guérin mountain never night noticed observer once orphanage Paris Paris Observatory perhaps Philippe Pinel Pierre-Joseph Bonnaterre potatoes Professor Bonnaterre Rodez Saint-Affrique Saint-Estève Saint-Sernin Savage of Aveyron scientists someone Sometimes stared stone stopped streets teacher tears took Victor and Madame village Virey in Lane walked walls wanted wild boy seemed wild boy's window woods young savage