I have several Oneworld Classics editions on my shelves and apart from the quality of the writing they contain, I also admire the high production values of this series. Cover design is stylish and appropriate to the content, the paper and typography are to a high standard and the overall result is a very collectible set of books.
Oneworld have an interesting catalogue and I appreciate the idea of publishing a range of lesser known works by "classical" authors. The About Us page on the website tells us that, "In September 2007, Oneworld Classics acquired the legendary Calder Publications list (founded 1949), with its vast array of Nobel-Prize winners and controversial authors such as Artaud, Trocchi and Miller". This is evidently going to be an imprint to watch.
Last Day of a Condemned Man is an excellent example of Oneworld Classics publishing ethos, being one of Victor Hugo's lesser known works but presenting it in a form which will ensure its place among Les Misérables and other titles.
The book is primarily polemical. Hugo was a lifelong campaigner against the death penalty and Wikipedia tells that he convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities. His influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Columbia. In the Preface to the 1832 edition, which begins this volume, it is stated clearly the book is nothing other than an appeal . . . for the abolition of the death penalty". There then follows 18 pages of carefully reasoned argument for why the death penalty has no place in civilised society, least of all a professed Christian society, for,
civilisation is no more than a series of transformations. The gentle law of Christ will finally penetrate the penal code and extend its influence across it.
At a time when even the United States carried out 37 executions in 2008, clearly this book still has a lot to say to the nations of the world.
The preface is followed by a dramatised script of a discussion of the book at a literary salon. The book is being criticised for its crude subject matter:
Madame de Blinval: It really is an appalling book, a book that gives on nightmares, a book that makes one ill.
Fat Gentleman: It must be said that morals deteriorate every day. My Lord, what a horrible thought! To uncover, dig up, analyse one by one without overlooking a single one, every physical suffering, every mental torment that a man condemned to death must feel on the day of his execution? Isn't it appalling?
Chevalier: Indeed it's monumentally impertinent.
The book itself is as the title suggests a first-person account of a prisoner's last day. Victor Hugo covers every aspect of this final period of the condemned man's life from the gruesome details of his physical incarceration to his inner thoughts and the increasing terror he goes through. We read of his hopes for a pardon right to his last moments, and his last steps up to the guillotine. At times I was reminded of Edgar Allen Poe's stories, particularly when reading about the dungeon in which the man is held while awaiting his execution, or the descriptions of prisoners being chained together for their journey to a lifetime of hard labour.
This is not a pleasant book to read, but then Hugo's intention was to show his fellow-citizens what really went on after the court had delivered its judgement. And of course there are still a large number of countries where this sort of experience still happens. Possibly The Last Day of a Condemned Man is of its time and place but its message remains all too relevant and I believe that Oneworld Classics are doing us a service in republishing this important book.
