Synopses & Reviews
Victor Hugo, the shining light of French Romanticism, was an indefatigable campaigner against the death penalty. This unique anthology of his controversial writings on crime and punishment reveals the author's generosity of spirit and his pity for the condemned. However, as always in Hugo, a degree of endearing self-glorification is never absent. The Last Day of a Condemned Man, while not seeking to minimalize its protagonist's responsibility for the murder he has committed, reminds the reader of the mental anguish endured by a man condemned to a cell. Claude Gueux is a documentary account of the martyrdom of a prisoner driven to crime by poverty, and to murder by the casual brutality of a head warder. Also included are Hugo's moving diary entries recording his visits to the prisons of La Roquette and the Conciergerie.
Synopsis
In this new anthology, the noted Australian poet Peter Porter has compiled a strikingly original and impartial collection of modern Australian verse commencing in 1945. With an emphasis on wit, satire, and technical virtuosity, the collection offers many wonderful poems by such famous names as
Les Murray, Francis Webb, Gwen Harwood, David Malouf, Dorothy Porter, and Chris Wallace-Crabbe.