The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby Reviews

Le scaphandre et le papillon Genre: Biography First Published: 1997 Price in 2009: I think the price on this book varies asto where you buy it. i got mine on offer for just £2 in HMV, so shop around the internet may be able to produce cheap versions also. Plot Summary: Jean Dominique ...  Read the complete review

What is your worst fear? Mine is to suffer some kind of illness or disability that makes me unable to live an independent life and be trapped within a useless body. I suffer from bouts of sleep paralysis during times of stress, put simply my mind wakes up and my body does not. When that first happened it was terrifying, I would fight with all my ...  Read the complete review

In December 1995, French journalist and editor-in-chief of Elle magazine Jean-Dominique Bauby seemed to have it all. He was a happy and healthy father of two with a successful career and many friends, a man known for his wit, style and love of life. However, on an outing with his young son not long before Christmas, he was suddenly taken ill and ...  Read the complete review

Jean Dominique-Bauby, the editor-in-chief of the French magazine Elle, was just 43 on the 8th of December 1995 when his life changed completely. Following a stoke, leaving him with damage to his brain stem, Bauby was left with a condition known as 'locked in syndrome'. Locked-in-syndrome is a thankfully incredibly rare condition which ...  Read the complete review

This is an awe inspiring, uplifting and devastating little book. It is only 140 pages long, and if you rad fairly quickly, (as I do), it can be completed in a single, albeit lengthy, session of reading, ( as I did). The reason why you may not be able to put the book down is the sheer power and tragedy of the situation explored by the author. ...  Read the complete review

On first picking up 'The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly'it will strike you that it is a very small book, a slim volume of only 139 pages, but on reading this story and with the realisation of how it was written, it transforms before your eyes in to a giant piece of work, a story so mamoth in its telling that I defy anyone not to be ...  Read the complete review