{"product_id":"the-forbidden-experiment-isbn-9781681379777","title":"The Forbidden Experiment","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Before dawn on January 9, 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 so-called Wild Boy of Aveyron—a child abandoned by his caretakers and captured, years later, while scavenging food from a garden. Unable to speak, he was sent to the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris, declared a hopeless case, and left to languish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne day, however, Jean Itard, a young medical student from the provinces, took notice of the boy. Itard began to spend time with him, and soon the two found ways to interact. With games and toys Itard engaged the boy's senses and imagination, developing methods of education (some of which went on to form a basis for special education and the Montessori method) that brought him out further. For a while Victor—as Itard named him—made progress, but soon it stalled. Isolated behind institutional walls, the boy lived out the rest of his life a stone's throw from the Luxembourg Gardens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Forbidden Experiment \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of a tragic young man and the extraordinary doctor who tried, however imperfectly, to help him. It is a story of compassion, like the case studies of Oliver Sacks—a figure whom Itard foreshadows. It is also a story that leads Shattuck to ask deep questions about the human animal: What is language, how do we acquire it, and what do we become if we are deprived of it?“Roger Shattuck’s \u003ci\u003eThe Forbidden Experiment\u003c\/i\u003e is a marvelous book. I am delighted to learn it is being revived; it should never have been out of print.” —Oliver Sacks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A beautiful story . . . we feel grateful to Shattuck for telling it so well.” —Robert Darnton, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Beautiful . . . a resonant story . . . the mystery will always be there, but on it Shattuck shines a warm and clarifying light.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Roger Shattuck has done a beautiful job of recreating the story, skillfully using a wealth of known documents and discovering a few new ones. Although there have been other good books about the wild child, Mr. Shattuck’s has the merits of conciseness, humanity, and just enough detachment.” —H. E. Gruber, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Nature versus nurture, Descartes contra Locke, Hobbes against Rousseau: much that vexed the Enlightenment is contained in the tale of this inexplicable child.\" —Brian Dillon, \u003ci\u003e4Columns\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A touching story, told with insight and compassion . . . evokes the theme and myth, the fantasy of the flight from society, not only to the woods but deeper into the self.” —\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shattuck’s sensitive, balanced, and reflective study . . . bring[s] exactly before us what was before Itard—the unnerving claim of Victor’s human face.” —Clifford Geertz, \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The doctor considered the experiment a failure; yet he was a pioneer in what is today called special education, and many of his techniques were adopted by Maria Montessori. . . . The detailed discussions of Victor’s behavior and training are fascinating.” —H. H. Flowers, \u003ci\u003eThe Horn Book\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Erudite, but never showy, [Shattuck] pieces the full story together, places it in scientific and social contexts and animates his narrative with lively asides. . . . Its appeal lies in the universal dream of escape from the responsibilities of civilized life to a simpler, freer existence. . . . Shattuck’s careful reconstruction of the experience—with the twentieth century’s perspective on psychology, history, philosophy, and linguistics—adds a rich new chapter to the endlessly interesting debate about nature versus nuture.” —Jean Strouse, \u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eRoger Shattuck\u003c\/b\u003e (1923–2005) was born in New York City, studied at Yale, and taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, and Boston University. A frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books, \u003c\/i\u003ehe was the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Banquet Years\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Innocent Eye\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eForbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMarcel Proust\u003c\/i\u003e, which was awarded the National Book Award in 1975. His book \u003ci\u003eThe Forbidden Experiment \u003c\/i\u003e(2025) and his edition of Helen Keller's \u003ci\u003eThe World I Live In \u003c\/i\u003e(2004) are published by NYRB Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJed Perl\u003c\/b\u003e is a regular contributor to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books. \u003c\/i\u003eHis books include \u003ci\u003eParis Without End\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew Art City\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMagicians and Charlatans\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAntoine's Alphabet\u003c\/i\u003e, a two-volume biography of Alexander Calder, and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eAuthority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts\u003c\/i\u003e. Perl was a contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e for a decade and the art critic at \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic \u003c\/i\u003efor twenty years.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233665986789,"sku":"NP9781681379777","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681379777.jpg?v=1767739392","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-forbidden-experiment-isbn-9781681379777","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}