The Last Day of the Condemned

In the death row cell awaits his last day a man who knows perfectly well: he has nothing more to hope for. But for now, he is still alive. He thinks. He feels. He remembers... Victor Hugo, an active opponent... of capital punishment, went for higher goals into literary mystification - in 1829 he published a short story The Last Day of the Condemned anonymously, posing as a genuine diary of a person sentenced to the highest penalty. A sensational success followed, and as soon as the author's name was revealed, an equally unprecedented campaign against Hugo in the press ensued... However, the names of his detractors have long been forgotten, while the story remains one of the strongest works in defense of the inalienable human right, even for a criminal, to life. The collection also includes the play Ruy Blas, belonging to Hugo's romantic period of creativity.