The Last Day of a Condemned Man

In the death row cell, a man awaits his last day, fully aware that he can hope for nothing more. But for now, he is still alive. He thinks. He feels. He remembers… Victor Hugo, a staunch opponent of the death penalty, resorted to literary mystification for higher purposes – in 1829, he anonymously published a short story, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, disguised as an authentic diary of a person sentenced to capital punishment. This led to sensational success, and soon after, once the author's name was revealed, Hugo faced unprecedented harassment in the press… However, the names of the detractors have long been forgotten, while the story remains one of the strongest works in defense of the inalienable right to life, even for a criminal. The collection also includes the play Ruy Blas, which belongs to the romantic period of Hugo's work.