Other Fiction Hugo, Victor: The Last Day of a Condemned Man, v.1, 2 August 2008.

[Patricia]

Victor Hugo
(1802–1885)
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
(Le Dernier Jour d’un condamné)
Translated by Eugenia de B.
(Translated from the 4th French edition of 1832.)


An account of the last day of a prisoner condemned to the guillotine. The text also includes Hugo’s Preface to the fourth Edition, in which he argues strongly against capital punishment, and ‘A Comedy Apropos Of a Tragedy’: a short dialogue used as an Introduction to the fourth edition.

From Wikipedia:
“A man that has been fated to death writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while he is waiting for his execution. He does not betray his name to the reader or what he has done, though he vaguely hints that he has killed someone. He describes his life in prison, everything from what his cell looks like to the personality of the prison priest. On the day he is to be executed he will see his three year old daughter for the first time…”

There are two translations freely availably on the web. One is heavily abridged. This is more complete but is actually a slight abridgement. The translator has mostly omitted passages to do with French legal procedure. This version is an improvement on the version at angelfire, which has a page missing.

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