Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
'To the English, I am "shocking"...What's more, French, which is disgusting; republican, which is abominable; exiled, which is repulsive; defeated, which is infamous.To top it all off, a poet...'Victor Hugo dominated literary life in France for over half a century, pouring forth novels, poems, plays, and other writings with unflagging zest and vitality. Here, for the first time in English, all aspects of his work are represented within a single volume.Famous scenes from the novels Notre-Dame, Les Miserables, and The Toilers of the Sea are included, as well as excerpts from his intimate diaries, poems of love and loss, and scathing denunciations of the political establishment.All the chosen passages are self-contained and can be enjoyed without any previous knowledge of Hugo's work.Much of the material is appearing in English for the first time, and most of it has never before been annotated thoroughly in any language. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Very good
This was a gift for a my little brother who is taking French Literature this year in college.He is happy with this book!That's all I really know.

A Brilliant and Faithful Translation
A magnificent translation, worthy of the highest praise, which, unfortunately, the Blackmores will not receive because of the animus everywhere prevailing against the translation of rhymed poetry in rhyme.Yet it would make as such sense to deprive Hugo of rhyme as it would to inflict it on Whitman.Rhyme is not a frivolous adornment or a self-inflicted stricture in Hugo's poetry of which the helpful translator should make haste to free him.Rhyme is an integral part of Hugo's poetry: it enhances the senserather than diminish it.The Blackmores, contrary to the opinion of Publisher's Weekly, are faithful translators.No two languages are exactly compatible; hence the need for translation.To expect a word for word correlation in a formal (or even a free translation ) is to elevate computer-translation to pre-eminence in the field. This translation does Hugo a greater service than that. It is clearly a work of love and reverence and almost of resurrection, since Hugo the novelist so completely overshadows Hugo the poet in The English-speaking world.It is also a most timely translation, for, inevitably and probably soon, the bile of modernism will finally dissuade anyone from undertaking the monumental task that the Blackmores have so admirably performed.

poems by a storywriter
i cant say that i loved the work. i sometimes feel its hard for a story writer to cross over and write poetry. that came across here as well--in my opinion. i struggled thru most of the work ... Read more

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From France, this series will present the best poems of various authors put to comics by a bevy of talented cartoonists. The full poem in its original form is first presented and then its visualized counterpart. ... Read more

Book Description
A new translation of Hugo's prison writings, including The Last Day of the Condemned Man, Claude Gueux, My Visit to the Conciergerie, and The Condemned Cells at La Roquette. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Sentimental Claptrap
It is always, I think, enlightening to read lesser-known works of "great" authors, especially highly prolific ones.First of all, it is usually evident why the particular work is lesser-known: Even great authors are capable of mediocre writing.But more importantly, it gives insight into the author's character.

"The Last Days of a Condemned Man" is, by the author's own statement in his preface, a work intended primarily to effect social change.While anyone has the right to write anything they like, I think that this approach is detrimental to the literary value of a work, if literary value has anything to do with truth.I would go so far as to say that this is not a work of literature, but rather a work of social propaganda, and that Hugo helped found the dreary tradition of artist-as-reformer, followed by such disciples as Norman Mailer and Sean Penn.

The affectation of omitting any mention of the narrator's crime is this book's greatest flaw.If (as is obvious) Hugo's intention is for us to truly empathize with the narrator, how can we do so without knowing what he did to be put to death?I happen to be against the death penalty (and I consider myself a liberal in the tradition of Gerry Brown et al.), but this whole book just made me feel like the author was intending to manipulate me, not share truth with me.I wish Hugo was alive so I could ask him for my money back.

A good quick read.Will force you to think a bit
Hugo speaks onto these pages, and mesmerizes.Although the actual story of this book is only 75 pages, it is packed with some of the ugliest parts of our society.The convict, the man sentenced to die, endures all angles of grief and horror, every emotion a deep-thinking man eventually realizes.
There was three or four events in the book that bring about the strongest arguments against the death penalty, and there is one scene that I'm sure will give me nightmares, which is rare for a book, much less a book by a classic writer, to have haunting images.
I believe that life is to be valued, and we should avoid taking it at all costs.As a nation, we should mourn not only the thousands that die as we enter a war, but yet, the thousands and hundreds of thousands that go against us, and are unfortunate to have a weaker gun, or less ammunition.
There should be penalties for crimes committed, but the book raises an excellent question: Do we have the right to take another person's life?In my logical line of thinking, I think if we're talking about Gacy or Dahmer, it's pretty cut and dry.But what about the mentally ill, the people to poor to afford a lawyer.Is it humane to justify the killing, because they have killed? True, it's a cliche argument, but prot was onto something when he envisioned that this WORLD was definitely backwards.

A statement on death penalty
Victor Hugo `The last days of a condemned man'; more than a distressing tale, is a social comment at the atrocity of the death penalty.He brings a moralistic debate of the authority of government to take life of its citizen. Through the first narrative of the main character whose name and crime is unknown, he describes the torturous moments the captive undergoes up until his time of death.Through these moments he transforms the death penalty from a means of punishment to a state sponsored torture.In the novel he places a sublime message that it is mans tasks to save lives; and its gods to take life.The death penalty becomes a challenge by man to god's authority.

A libel against the death penalty
The story is totally written in the first person, of a man condemned to the scafold, never the reader being told about who was the man and which crime did he commit. As the days passes, the end approaches and we begin to feel ourselves in that man's skin, suffering with him, groping for some way out of his whole misery. I suppose this is a book which must have caused a lot of controversy and anguish at the time of its first publication, but I am afraid that the impact is not the same today, with a lot of books and films showing the same theme, only changing the dreaded guillotine for the terrible electric chair. The book is a libel against the death penalty, something Victor Hugo did not manage to achieve in his lifetime.

The Last Day of a Condemned Man: A Classic
After reading Les Miserables I bought The Last Day of a Condemned Man, I was not expecting an masterpiece like Les Miserables and, because of that, I had such a great surprise, it's a short book but with an energetic message, it shows the horrors of the condemned, the psycological efects in his person when hes own daughter do not recognize him, everiday expecting only death, and with feeling, truth and talent, Victor Hugo show us why the penalty of death is horrendous to anyone. ... Read more

Download Description
This volume of memoirs has a double character - historical and intimate.The life of a period, the XIX Century, is bound up in the life of a man, VICTOR HUGO.As we follow the events set forth we get the impression they made upon the mind of the extraordinary man who recounts them; and of all the personages he brings before us he himself is assuredly not the least interesting.In portraits from the brushes of Rembrandts there are always two portraits, that of the model and that of the painter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tragedy, Triumph, and Redemption
Les Miserables is not the story of any one man. Rather, it is a story of society. Victor Hugo's characters are based around one of the most important periods of history. The events and downfalls portrayed in thisnovel should be grasped by everyone of our present-day society. Peopletoday believe we have it bad. People today think that a day at the officeis stressful. People think that the law doesn't show very good justice.People today are wrong. In Hugo's time, the character Jean Valjean wasimprisoned in the galleys at Toulon for 19 years. Nineteen! And for what?For stealing a loaf of bread. Today that's NOTHING in our society.Being a16-year old, this seems rather harsh. To anyone it should seem ratherharsh.Another character, Fantine, was led to prostitution because sheneeded to take care of her girl, Cosette. Starvation and deprivation fromsociety drove Fantine to this.The love affair between Marius and Cosetteshould also be embraced. Here, in all the madness the world is in, thesetwo young adults can find love for each other, and make it last. And forJean Valjean, hope springs eternal. Through all the hardships, torments,and anguish, Valjean can still find the will to go on with his life.Anything such as this which is read in the novel will not be found inpresent-day society.This novel shows that in a world gone mad, love,triumph, and the human spirit....will live on. It will prevail. This novelshows that we must stick together, we must never give up, and we must neverlet in to the cruelties and evil of our society. I am very surprised thatthis immense novel has not been adopted by schools for literary purposes.It kind of makes me ashamed to be a part of my society, where everything ismad, yet, here's this tale of the miserable right in front of us, andpeople don't make an effort to take it in. It's a tragedy on our part.Irecommend this novel to anyone who has a human heart. Once you have readit, you will want to change. This tale of Tragedy, Triumph, and Redemptionwill make the human soul think for a few minutes, and take time out oflife's burdens. Les Miserables......is a triumph for us all.-Zach Jones ... Read more