The Toilers of the Sea (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Isabel F. Hapgood (Translator) "THE ATLANTIC wears away our coasts..." (more)
Key Phrases: inverse sense, paddle boxes, smoke stack, Mess Lethierry, Sieur Clubin, Channel Islands (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though it sold briskly when first published in 1866, Toilers of the Sea, by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), is rarely read in the U.S. today. In time for the bicentenary of Hugo's birth, Modern Library has commissioned a new translation by Scot James Hogarth for the first unabridged English edition of the novel, which tells the story of an illiterate fisherman from the Channel Islands who must free a ship that has run aground in order to win the hand of the woman he loves, a shipowner's daughter. Gilliat, the embattled fisherman, contends with sea storms and monstrous predators that Hugo describes in exhilarating detail. Intended to be part of a triptych with Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the book laments the living conditions of impoverished workers, while celebrating their ingenuity and discipline.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

Here to help celebrate the great Romantic writer's bicentennial year is a lively new translation of the least known of his massive, unruly masterpieces. Though it lacks the concentrated melodramatic power of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this agreeably preposterous romance, originally published in 1866 in a carefully edited and partially censored text, displays most of Hugo's enduring crowd-pleasing skills: a mastery of atmosphere (especially in the essay-like opening sequence, "The Channel Archipelago"), deep and credible empathy with working-class heroes and heroines, and a rare ability to create vivid and visceral action scenes (most notably evident in its hero's climactic battle with the loathsome octopus known as the "pieuvre," or devilfish). The central story, in which its protagonist Gilliatt accepts the task of freeing a grounded ship (for which service he will be awarded the hand of a wealthy shipowner's daughter), is energetically juxtaposed against richly detailed pictures of seamen's occupations and marine life that recall (though in no way rival) Melville's definitive mixture of narrative and fact in Moby-Dick. And, although Toilers is unmistakably more romance than realistic novel, the bracing bitterness of its ironic conclusion gives it a haunting staying power. Those of us who first "read" this novel in the Classic Comics version of half a century ago will be grateful to discover that Hugo's impossibly grandiose and overblown yarn remains as perversely irresistible as ever. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (November 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451527720
• ISBN-13: 978-0451527721
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #996,420 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #72 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hugo, Victor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flaws do not mar. An AWESOME read., August 18, 2001

By	Mike Baum (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews

This new edition of Victor Hugo's long-overlooked novel about a lone fisherman's heroic struggle to salvage the engine of a wrecked ship is long overdue. Its defects aside, it is an impressive work that deserves to bask in popularity alongside *Les Miserables* and *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*.

What strikes me first is the sheer power of Hugo's mind. In *The Toilers of the Sea* no less than in his two more famous works, he wields his pen like a Zeus-thrown thunderbolt, hurling down his words from the lofty heights of his thought with electrifying intensity, grandeur and drama. Few writers living today, however talented, come close to achieving this effect. Nor have they Hugo's breadth of knowledge and ability to write with it as he can: the effect is one of scope and depth, and more; awesome, but hard for me to put into words.

These qualities are in Hugo's straight narrative as well as his digressions, which are legion; readers who remember his long description of the sewers of Paris--stuck into the middle of *Les Miserables*, a novel about redemption--will know what I mean. The first fifty pages of *The Toilers of the Sea*, for example, are taken up in the geographical, historical and cultural background of the setting; later, several pages each are spent on such subjects as the nature of hypocrisy, the winds at sea, and the myth and mystique of that eight-tentacled demon of the deep, the octopus. Brilliant in themselves as these digressions are, they are seldom integrated seamlessly into the story. But I will not gripe, for they are well-written and give a contemporary readership much-needed context.

Certainly they do not detract from the plot, however much they interrupt it. As always, Hugo tells a powerful tale, as gripping and suspenseful as can be found in today's best popular fiction, and in which wild natural imagery and thrilling action predominate more than in any of his other works. As Hugo states in his preface, "Religion, society, nature: these are the three struggles of man." Religion and society are the chief conflicts in *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* and *Les Miserables*. In *The Toilers of the Sea*, it is man versus nature. Fittingly, much of the action is set at sea, where a gently undulating blue expanse can turn into a dark, crashing tempest on short notice and a single human being is most isolated. When the crunch comes, therefore, the novel's hero has nobody to rely on but himself--a mind with muscles pitted against an immensity of unconscious, inexhaustible forces. To witness his struggle--in which, stoic and determined in the face of obstacles and setbacks that would drive most men to despair, he draws on incredible ingenuity, endurance and willpower ultimately to triumph in his undertaking--is reason enough to read this book. The exalted experience such a tale of heroism gives us of itself needs no justification.

Flaws, however, do, and one reader review here has argued for their presence in this book and slammed it for them. These are chiefly an unnecessary subplot and a bad love interest. The former I will not touch: whether an esthetic crime or not, the subplot is *enjoyable*--which is nine-tenths of what I read for. But I will readily join in lambasting the latter, for the hero loves a girl utterly unworthy of him and, partly because of this, his behavior toward her seems unmotivated. This both stunts his characterization and is offensive in the extreme as, when glory is his due, his love causes him to meet with a wholly undeserved fate in a disturbing twist-ending.

Fortunately, *The Toilers of the Sea* is not primarily a love story--which flaccid, hanging aspect of it is not likely to move many readers, in any case. Rather, it is a story of man's greatness, and should be evaluated as such. A work of such powerful, masterful writing and with such a compelling story deserves no less than my full recommendation of five stars.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful--Better than Les Miserables!!!, January 19, 2005

By	Jennifer R. Gremillion (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Toilers of the Sea

This is an amazingly transporting novel. As a small child I remember having a strong fear of the ocean at night, a fear of its darkness and depth and what creatures might lie within its waters. Victor Hugo has captured this fear and wrapped it around his novel,The Toilers of the Sea.
The opening half of the novel plays like a calm and reflective field journal, taking the reader across the island of Guernsey through a minutia of flora and fauna, historical lives of islanders, and detailed Channel Island geography. Before we are introduced to Hugo's cast of characters and literary intentions, he envelopes us in the islands in such a way that we grow to love their serenity; deceitful as it often is.
And then suddenly, without warning Deruchette and Galliat appear and a plot forms. This second half of the novel takes on Romanticism in a way that only Victor Hugo would attempt. All at once, man is pitted against Nature, Religion, Justice and himself. We soon see the power of the ocean closing in around Galliat as well as the powers of those men who would have him fail. Galliat finds himself in the darkest pit of the sea, struggling for his own survival, for the survival of what is right and what is good. As a reader, we taste the salty air and feel the torrential wet winds that attempt to tear down poor Galliat. We feel his every struggle and wish fervently for his success.
Without a doubt, The Toilers of the Sea, is a wonderfully tragic novel that works on many levels. I used to think there was no better novel than Les Miserables, no greater literary character than Jean Valjean, but now I know better-read it and see what I mean.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential., May 28, 2001

By	Angry Mofo "angrymofo" - See all my reviews

I own the Collected Works of Victor Hugo, 15 vols. Last summer I found the time to read all of them. I must say that The Toilers of the Sea, in the end, strikes me as the best book Hugo ever wrote. Sure, we have The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And Les Miserables. But Toilers of the Sea got to me more, okay? Somehow I identified with Gilliat more than with Quasimodo and Jean Valjean combined. He's a very realistic character, unlike the overly miserable hunchback or the overly saintly Valjean, and his struggles are very realistic, which makes the reader care far more about whether he succeeds or not.

Hugo had spent some years in Jersey/Guernsey, where the book takes place, and I suppose that observing the sea was all there was to do there, since in the book it's clear that he knows every little aspect of it. The sea is just as prominent a character as Gilliat, and just as realistic, and has even more space devoted to it than any of the humans. It's hard to think of it as inanimate after reading this book. The imagery of the storm is certainly unforgettable.

This book is more touching than Hugo's others, maybe because the author focuses more on telling a story rather than a Big Important Social Message About the Plight of the Poor. There's humor, there's tragedy, there's drama, and the result is a very immersive read.