Condemned to Devil's Island

Blair Niles (1880-1959) was a Virginia native that authored non-fictional accounts of global human suffrage and fictional novels that expressed commentary on social issues. She was a founding member of the Society of Women Geographers and was honored with a Women's National Book Award. I'm always searching for an entertaining prison-themed adventure, so I decided to read her novel Condemned to Devil's Island, which was published as a hardcover in 1928 and adapted into a film in 1929.

Niles authored the book after interviewing an unnamed French prisoner, named “Michael” in the book, that was serving a sentence at the notorious Bagne de Cayenne, referred to as “Devil's Island”, in French Guiana. In flashback scenes, readers learn of Michael's servitude to a Russian Prince and his descent into criminality, leading to a temporary prison sentence in France before being sentenced to seven years of hard labor on the island. 

When the book begins, Michael is jovial about the trip, looking forward to the passage by boat to the island and seeing a new land full of possibilities. He makes friends with another inmate named Felix and the two converse about their pasts and the opportunities that lie ahead on this new island of imprisonment. Despite the horrific aura of Devil's Island, Michael is in a blissful state of denial. He never seems to fully grip his real undertaking here.

As the book expands into the cumbersome chores of prison life, Michael becomes a type of prison courier that works in the village. At night he's behind bars in the less restrictive dormitory portion of the facility, and by day he socializes and gathers gossip that he later trades for various  goods in the prison. Eventually Michael develops a relationship with a warden's wife in town and makes a few escape attempts to no avail.

Condemned to Devil's Island isn't a men's action-adventure prison break novel. Instead, this is simply a character study in the form of a tepid melodrama about Michael's hopes and desires behind prison walls. In fairness, I barely finished the book and found myself skipping entire sections of pointless deliberation between characters over tedious things. This book was a sluggish bore and I can't recommend it to anyone. If you want a more inspiring prison-break adventure try Henri Charriere's Papillon (1969), Peter McCurtin's Escape from Devil's Island (1971), or Rene Belbenoit's Dry Guillotine (1938).