The Forbidden Experiment

The true story of the nineteenth century’s so-called “Wild Boy of Aveyron”—an abandoned French child who lived for years alone in the wilderness before being brought under the care of an innovative young physician.

“Before dawn on January 8, 1800, a remarkable creature came out of the woods near the village of Saint-Sernin in southern France...”

So begins Roger Shattuck’s book about the Wild Boy of Aveyron—a child tragically abandoned by his caretakers and captured years later while scavenging food from a local garden. The Wild Boy could not speak, refused all clothing, and repeatedly tried to escape from captivity. Sent to the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris and declared a hopeless case, he was left to run wild until, one day, a medical student arrived on the scene.

Jean Itard, young and from the provinces, began spending time with the boy and imagining ways to help him. He hired a woman named Guérin to care for him and gradually introduced him to social interaction, engaging his senses and imagination with games, toys, and other forms of training. For a while Victor (as Itard named him) made progress, but by 1805 their sessions together had reached an impasse. Victor died in obscurity, still cared for by Madame Guérin, in 1828.

The Forbidden Experiment tells the story of a troubled young man and the extraordinary doctor who tried, however imperfectly, to help him. It is also, in Shattuck’s thoughtful, accessible, and compassionate prose, a book that explores essential questions about the human condition. What separates us from animals? What is language, and how do we acquire it? Can children who have been neglected or abused learn to trust the world?

First published in 1980—and inspired by François Truffaut’s film The Wild Child—The Forbidden Experiment is now back in print for the first time in more than a decade.