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)
The Toilers of the Sea ranks with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and
Les Miserables as among Hugo's most important novels, yet is less
well known, in part because the only English translation was
inaccurate, stilted, and incomplete. Thus, James Hogarth's
excellent new translation -- the first rendering of the complete
novel -- is a noteworthy event; in it, the clarity and power of
Hugo's voice is restored.
The novel tells the story of Gilliat, a humble Guernsey
fisherman, who falls in love with a shipowner's daughter and, to
win her hand in marriage, must free a ship that has run dangerously
aground. To do so, Gilliat employs great feats of engineering,
endures the mighty powers of sea and wind, and does battle with a
great sea monster. In its evocation of the elements in all their
ferocity, The Toilers of the Sea is one of the greatest depictions
of nature ever attempted. In its treatment of the lives of the
working poor, it is a work of humane majesty.
This edition includes comprehensive endnotes and Hugo's
illustrations, which have never been reproduced in an edition of
this monumental novel.
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