The twenty-fifth hour – Constantin Georgiou | Novel

The novel "The Twenty-Fifth Hour" (1949) by Romanian writer Constantin Virgil Georgiu is an literary and philosophical scream against the dehumanization of man in the age of technology and bureaucracy. It tells the story of Johann Moritz, a simple peasant who falls victim to military regimes and informants, spending 13 years moving between prisons, stripped of his humanity and classified as a "number" not as a human. The novel depicts the tragedy of the contemporary human being under totalitarian regimes that turn him into a "gear" in a huge machine (technological, military, and bureaucratic) that shows no mercy. The novel is a artistic document and a tragic testimony to the miserable fate of man in the twentieth century.