Product Description

Deeply shocking in its time, The Last Day of a Condemned Man is a profound and moving tale and a vital work of social commentary.

A man vilified by society and condemned to death for his crime wakes every morning knowing that this day might be his last. With the hope for release his only comfort, he spends his hours recounting his life and the time before his imprisonment. But as the hours pass, he knows that he is powerless to change his fate. He must follow the path so many have trod before him—the path that leads to the guillotine. With a Foreword by Libby Purves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #471170 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-01
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
The message could be delivered by any present-day liberal, about any extreme punishment. -- Amnesty International

Review

"The whole World's Classics series is tremendous boon to the literature offerings--beautifully edited and packaged."--Charles Riley, Baruch College, City University of New York

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Customer Reviews

The Last Day of a Condemned Man: A Classic
After reading Les Miserables I bought The Last Day of a Condemned Man, I was not expecting an masterpiece like Les Miserables and, because of that, I had such a great surprise, it's a short book but with an energetic message, it shows the horrors of the condemned, the psycological efects in his person when hes own daughter do not recognize him, everiday expecting only death, and with feeling, truth and talent, Victor Hugo show us why the penalty of death is horrendous to anyone.

Relevant to Today!
I originally read the French version of this book, with a preface (which is probably in the English translation, no doubt) that is an essay of the reasons to abolish the death penalty. Abolishing "la peine de mort" was the point of this book, published in 1830, a year before Hugo published Notre-Dame de Paris (a.k.a. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame); Hugo was 27. The essay logically spells out why the death penalty should be abolished; the actual narrative of the story - a journal that the main character keeps of his every thought and feeling in the six weeks from his sentencing to the moment before he is taken to the Place de Greve to be guillotined - moves the reader emotionally. What was relevant in France in the 18th cent. is relevant in the U.S. today.

A statement on death penalty
Victor Hugo `The last days of a condemned man'; more than a distressing tale, is a social comment at the atrocity of the death penalty. He brings a moralistic debate of the authority of government to take life of its citizen. Through the first narrative of the main character whose name and crime is unknown, he describes the torturous moments the captive undergoes up until his time of death. Through these moments he transforms the death penalty from a means of punishment to a state sponsored torture. In the novel he places a sublime message that it is mans tasks to save lives; and its gods to take life. The death penalty becomes a challenge by man to god's authority.