The Wild Boy of Aveyron Author:Harlan Lane "Through the autumn and winter of 1799, a naked boy was seen swimming and drinking in streams, climbing trees, running at great speed on all fours, digging for rocks and bulbs in the fields, turning towards the sky to render up deep cries and great bursts of laughter. On the morning of January 8, 1800, encouraged perhaps by treatment he had... more » received from local farmers, urged on perhaps by hunger, he approached one farmer's workshop. The boy stepped across the threshold into a new life, and into a new era in the education of man.. ."
Who was this strange child of the forest? Was he Rousseau's "noble savage"? All Europe watched in awe and fascination as a young doctor with a burning faith in human nature began the slow, painstaking task of restoring the enfant sauvage to his civilized heritage.
This celebrated encounter has since inspired three novels, poems, plays, a Francois Truffaut film, and even a hit song. Now, in a new, brilliant narrative drawn from Dr. Jean-Marc Itards own journals and other eyewitness accounts, you can finally read the true story of the wild boy of Aveyron in all its moving human detail.« less