"""""""Before hearing my death sentence I was aware that my lungs breathed, that my heart beat, and that my body lived in the community of other men; now, I plainly saw that a barrier had sprung up between them and me. Nothing was the same as before."""" The imprisoned narrator of this profoundly moving novel awaits execution - and waits, and waits. Although his guilt is undeniable, his essential humanity emerges as he struggles with the certainty of impending death. It recounts the thoughts of a condemned man as the day of his execution draws near. Inspired by the sight of an executioner preparing the guillotine for another scheduled public execution, HE quickly wrote this moving and eloquent work describing the condemned man's final thoughts as he awaits his death. one of the most influential movements in French and all of European literary history. Like many of his time, His 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.