num_pages: 256
description: Maude Juliens childhood was defined by the iron grip of her father who was convinced his daughter was destined for great deeds. His plan began when he adopted Maudes mother and indoctrinated her with his esoteric ideals. Her mission was to give him a daughter as blonde as she was and then to take charge of the childs education. That child was Maude on whom her father conducted his outrageous experimentto raise the perfect super-human being.The three lived in an isolated mansion in northern France where her father made her undergo endless horrifying endurance tests. Maude had to hold an electric fence without flinching. Her parents locked her in a cellar overnight and ordered her to sit still on a stool in the dark contemplating death while rats scurried around her feet.How did this girl with her loveless and lonely childhood emerge so unscathed so full of the empathy that was absent in her childhood? How did she manage to escape?Maude was sustained by her love of nature and animals and her passion for literature. In writing this memoir Maude Julien shows that it is possible to overcome severe trauma. She recounts her chilling and deeply moving story in a compelling and compassionate voice.
language: English
title: The Only Girl in the World
publisher: Text Publishing