The Last Day of a Condemned Man is a short novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

 first published in 1829

1829 in literature

The year 1829 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Edward George Bulwer-Lytton - Devereux*Honoré de Balzac - Les Chouans*Catherine Gore - Romances of Real Life...

. The novel recounts the thoughts of a man condemned to die. Hugo sees the book as a renunciation of the death penalty .

Plot summary

A man who has been condemned to death by the guillotine in 19th century France writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while awaiting his execution. His writing traces his change in psyche vis-a-vis the world outside the prison cell throughout his imprisonment, and describes his life in prison, everything from what his cell looks like to the personality of the prison priest. He does not betray his name or what he has done to the reader, though he vaguely hints that he has killed someone.


On the day he is to be executed he sees his three-year-old daughter for the last time, but she no longer recognizes him, and tells him her father is dead.


The novel ends just after he briefly but desperately begs for pardon and curses the people of his time, the people he hears outside, screaming impatiently for the spectacle of his decapitation.