Bug-Jargal, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, Claude Gueux

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Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a celebrated French novelist, poet, playwright, dramatist, essayist and statesman whose work ushered in the Romantic literary movement in France, one of the most influential movements in French and all European literary history. Like many of his time, Hugo promoted the virtues of liberty, individualism, spirit and nature in rebellion of the conservative political and religious establishments of Imperial France, and eventually became known as one of the most gifted and influential writers of his time. "The Last Day of a Condemned Man" is one of Hugo's first mature works of fiction, written in 1829, and recounts the thoughts of a condemned man as he prepares for death. The short novel would later have profound influence on writers like Albert Camus, Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Claude Gueux" is a short story, written in 1834. It contains Hugo's early thoughts on society injustice, which would be refined and fleshed out over the course of a few decades, resulting in the publication of "Les Misérables" in 1862.