Part of Alma’s 101 Pages series, this edition includes Preface to the 1832 edition, a manifest of Hugo’s personal opinions, and Claude Gueux, an early example of “true crime” fiction.

A first-person diary of a prisoner’s final day before being executed for an unspecified crime, Victor Hugo’s poignant tale vividly conveys the mental anguish of a man confronted with the intransigent mechanism of justice, as his mind seeks refuge in recollections from his past and philosophical musings on his inevitable fate.

As relevant today as when it was first published in 1829, The Last Day of a Condemned Man is an eloquent plea for compassion and a masterpiece of realist fiction. This edition includes Preface to the 1832 edition, a manifest of Hugo’s personal opnions, A Comedy about a Tragedy and Claude Gueux, an early example of “true crime” fiction.

Novelist, playwright, poet, painter, human-rights activist and statesman, Victor Hugo (1802–85) was one of the most influential figures of nineteenth-century France and is still considered its greatest writer