The Last Day of a Condemned Man (World's Classics) [Paperback]

Victor Hugo (Author), Geoff Woollen (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 1992 | Series: World's Classics

Victor Hugo, the shining light of French Romanticism, was an indefatigable campaigner against the death penalty. This unique anthology of his controversial writings on crime and punishment reveals the author's generosity of spirit and his pity for the condemned. However, as always in Hugo, a degree of endearing self-glorification is never absent. The Last Day of a Condemned Man, while not seeking to minimalize its protagonist's responsibility for the murder he has committed, reminds the reader of the mental anguish endured by a man condemned to a cell. Claude Gueux is a documentary account of the martyrdom of a prisoner driven to crime by poverty, and to murder by the casual brutality of a head warder. Also included are Hugo's moving diary entries recording his visits to the prisons of La Roquette and the Conciergerie.

Editorial Reviews

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

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 19, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192828908
• ISBN-13: 978-0192828903
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Last Day of a Condemned Man: A Classic, January 16, 2003

By 

Daniell Marafon (Campinas, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Day of a Condemned Man (Hesperus Classics) (Paperback)

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.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant to Today!, November 6, 2001

By 

Nicole Matson (Suffolk, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Day of a Condemned Man (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Counting every second., June 14, 2009

By 

J. Erick Forsyth (Birmingham) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Day of a Condemned Man (Hesperus Classics) (Paperback)

I picked this book up due to the noted reference in Dostoevski's "The Idiot" (He considered it a masterpiece) and I found it to be as good as I had anticipated. This edition comes in a nice contemporary cover (with apparent convicts of recent date), which didn't seem "classic" at first, but upon second thought made the work transcend the era in which it was written and open up thought on contemporary capital punishment. Along with Camus' famous essay, the preface to this is one of the greatest pieces of writing against Capital Punishment. The language is poignant and vivid, the overall tone is intimate, and the structure offers lucid imagery that really confronts, not only the plight of a 'condemned' man, but the finitude to which we all face. Excellent and quick read.