The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

In this chapter, Bauby discusses Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III. She is his hospital’s original patroness, and a stained-glass window depicts her likeness in its main hall. The hall also contains a letter in which the deputy stationmaster of Berck’s railroad depot describes her visit to the hospital in 1864. Bauby takes a flight of fancy in in his writing about this letter, which he has read many times. He imagines himself caught up in the action of the visit that it describes—mingling with the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting, following her from ward to ward, and imagining her yellow-ribboned hat, her silk parasol, and the scent of her royal perfume.

He even recalls a time that he imagined confessing his woes to her. In this episode, he was shocked by what he initially perceived as a stranger’s face, which was reflected in the stained-glass window. He describes the face as one that looked as if it has emerged from a vat of formaldehyde, with a twisted mouth, mangled nose, tousled hair, and a frightened gaze. He observed that one of its eyes was sewn shut, and that the other was goggled, before suddenly realizing that the face was his own. He then recalls that, upon this realization, he began to laugh at the totality of his calamity—not only is he “paralyzed, mute, half-deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of a jellyfish, but [he] was also horrible to behold” (25).