The Last Day of a Condemned Man (1829) is a short novel by Victor
Hugo. Having witnessed several executions by guillotine as a young man,
Hugo devoted himself in his art and political life to opposing the death
penalty in France. Praised by Dostoevsky as "absolutely the most real
and truthful of everything that Hugo wrote," The Last Day of a
Condemned Man is a powerful story from an author who defined nineteenth
century French literature. If you knew when and where you would die, how
would you spend your final moments? For Hugo's unnamed narrator, such an
existential question is made reality. Sentenced to death for an
unspecified crime, he reflects on his life as its last seconds wane in
the shadows of a cramped prison cell. Recording his emotional state,
observations, and conversations with a priest and fellow prisoner, the
condemned man forces us to not only recognize his humanity, but question
our own. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset
manuscript, this edition of Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned
Man is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern
readers.