his decapitation. Influence Hugo's text was translated twice into English in 1840. The first translation was published by George William MacArthur Reynolds, author of penny blood novel The Mysteries of London (1844–48), as The Last Day of a Condemned. The second translation in 1840 was completed by Sir P. H. Fleetwood, titled The Last Days of a Condemned. Fleetwood also added his own preface to the book, outlining why it was important that British anti-capital punishment campaigners ought to read it, whereas Reynolds did not add any substantive new material but reprinted Hugo's preface and provided a few footnotes which he signed as 'Trans.' Though The Last Day of a Condemned Man is lesser known than some of Hugo's other works, the novel had the distinction of being praised as "absolutely the most real and truthful of everything that Hugo wrote” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, who referenced it in both his letters and his novel, The Idiot. Notably, Dostoyevsky had suffered the psychological insight of himself being condemned to death and suffered a mock execution after reprieved. Furthermore, Dostoevsky pays tribute to the novel in the format of The Meek One, citing Hugo's novel as a means of justifying the "fantastic" idea of writing down a person's thoughts at a moment of distress. Notes External links 1829 French novels Novels by Victor Hugo