A first-person diary of a prisoner's final day before being executed for
an unspecified crime, Victor Hugo's poignant tale vividly conveys the
mental anguish of a man confronted with the intransigent mechanism of
justice, as his mind seeks refuge in recollections from his past and
philosophical musings on his inevitable fate.
As relevant today as when it was first published in 1829, The Last Day
of a Condemned Man is an eloquent plea for compassion and a masterpiece
of realist fiction. This edition includes the Preface to the 1832
edition of the book, a manifest of Hugo's personal opinions, 'A Comedy
about a Tragedy' and 'Claude Gueux', an early example of "true crime"
fiction.