The Last Day of the Condemned

In the death row cell waits a man who knows his last day has come and has no more hope. But for now, he is still alive. He thinks. He feels. He remembers… Victor Hugo, an active opponent of the death penalty, embarked on a literary mystification for higher purposes – in 1829 he published a short story "The Last Day of the Condemned" anonymously, as if it were a genuine diary of a condemned criminal. This resulted in a sensational success, and as soon as the author's name was revealed, a similarly unprecedented campaign against Hugo in the press followed… However, the names of the detractors are long forgotten, while the story remains one of the strongest works in defense of the inalienable right of a person (even a criminal) to life. The collection also includes the play "Ruy Blas," which belongs to Hugo's "romantic" period.