雨果是法蘭西19世紀浪漫主義時期最具代表性的文學家。1829年的《死囚末日記》是他廢除死刑主張的重要作品，文體風格獨特新穎，以自傳體第一人稱敘事觀點，透過內心獨白，透視一位無名死囚上斷頭台前，生命最後歷程的焦慮與恐懼心靈狀態。值得一提的是小說的共有三篇序言，前兩篇是1928年簡短序言為匿名之作，1832年，雨果重新寫了第三篇序言，其中他不否認《死囚末日記》就是一本廢死的辯護小說，反駁贊成斷頭台繼續存在的人士。他要以文學作品影響大眾輿論。1848年，雨果成為國會議員，在議會殿堂為主張廢死而辯，推動廢死立法，雖然生前未能成功，但不愧是廢死主張浪漫鬥士。本文將以《死囚末日記》作為文本基礎，探討雨果廢死小說創作的動機、斷頭台的政治社會背景及廢死的艱辛過程。

Hugo, a well-known writer of the literary movement of Romanticism in the 19th century, is famous for his work on the abolition of death penalty, The Last Day of a Codemned Man (Le Dernier jour d’un condamné). It is regarded to be one of his most important works in literature. The writing style by using the first person “I” in an autobiography to state the story distinguishes him from other authors at his generation. The character “I” sharply related his anxiety and fear at the last moment of his life before marching to the guillotine. The novel began with three preludes. The first two were short and published anonymously in 1828. In 1832, Hugor completed his third prelude. In it, he assured us of the rightiousness to abolish death penalty. Accordingly, he attacked social injustice such as cruelly cutting off a criminal’s head. He intended to influence the public by this novel. Hugo was elected to the French Parliament where he continued to fight against dealth penalty and endeavored to make laws to protect human right and social justice. Although his endeavors were not successful, truely he is a romantic and great fighter to defend human right. This essay attempts to explore Hugo’s motif to abolish death penalty, explain the poltitical and social background behind its practice of death penalty by galletin as well as find out how execustion was carried out at Hugo’s era.