[.uk] The Toilers of the Sea (Modern Library Classics) (ISBN 0375761322)

The Toilers of the Sea:
An excellent novel - typical of Hugo - immersing readers into the time and culture of Guernsey and the surrounding Channel Islands. If you don't like description very much, or if you prefer a fast-moving plot with little digression, this is NOT the book for you. However, if you're willing to put in the time and concentration, Hugo can do what very few contemporary, popular fiction authors can - he can pull you into a world you've probably never experienced, fleshing it out and making it seem so real that it feels like you grew up there. His attention to detail not only reflects his tremendous amount of knowledge, but also his sympathy for humanity with all its nuances. Hugo's understanding of human nature (his characters are almost always richly three-dimensional - a.k.a. everyone's more complicated than solely Good or Bad) works together with an exceptional tragic/romantic plot that ends up making a moral point that few authors have the authority (no pun intended) to make today. More than worthwhile - exceptional.

A Great Writer:
Only a great philosopher, a great poet, a great historian, a great humanitarian, a great sociologist, a great psychologist and a great naturalist could have written this book. No less than a great mind in all of these spheres could have produced some of the passages found in this masterpiece. If you stop half way through this book, you will miss some of the most awe-inspiring prose that has ever been written. Hugo's description of the night sky over the ocean, his description of a storm... brillant.

Do not toil in this sea unless you know what you're getting into!:
I love Victor Hugo's writting ability. No one can write confrontational scenes better than him. I believe his book Les Miserables is the best fictional book that has ever been written, bar none. I also love the Hunchback of Notre Dame, to me it's one of the top five to ten books that I have ever read. Anyone who has read any of his books knows that the climaxes of his books are extraordinary.... no one comes close. No one can write confrontational scenes better than him. They also know that his writting is more beautiful than just about any other author who has ever lived. People who have read Victor Hugo's books also know that he likes to go off on tangents that get away from the story for numerous pages. For instance, in Les Miserables he goes on for countless pages describing the convent and the sewer system. These tangents that he loves to go on are extremly unnecesary and take away from the story in his books but you deal with them because the story is worth it. The Toilers of the Sea is also a great story but the book is so marred with these tangets and over explanation of EVERYTHING that it just totally bogs the book down. It's a good story but not good enough to fight through everything. The first half of the book is very difficult to get through, the first fifty or so pages is just an explanation of the surrounding islands... the next 150 pages or so are overkill explanations of the plot and seeting it up. I honestly don't believe half of the people who start this book will make it to page 200 unless they are forced to for a school project etc. The next 230 pages are a lot more interesting but Victor Hugo's over explaining every detail and his constantly annoying habbit of saying the same thing ten different ways really makes this book difficult and rather boring. Gillete, the main character is really a awesome character (he reminds me of Jean ValJean in Les Miserables)and there really is a good story here about him, Deruchette, Senior Clubin and Miss Leherity (I'm probably buthering the spellings.... sorry) but I honestly think very few people will make it through the book. If Victor would have had an editor who could have helped clean this up and shorten it I think it would have been a lot better. P.S. I also hated the ending.... what Gillete did to himself at the end of the book just totally annoyed me.

Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful:
I have read both of Hugo's more famous works, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserable, and while they are undoubtedly masterpieces, I think I like this neglected gem best of all. From the pastorla description of the Channel Islands to the marvelously melodramatic chapter on the traits of the Octopus (or Devilfish, as the translator deftly chooses to call it) the whole novel is a work of unparalelled beauty. But perhaps most impressive of all is the epic conflict of man versus sea. While reading Hugo's other novels, it was a rare chapter found me truly excited, but the entire second half of The Toilers of the Sea was impossible for me to put down. Before concluding, I would like to comment on the two "flaws" mentioned in other reviews. First, the subplot, although perhaps not strictly necessary to the story, was great fun and I thought Clubin was avery attractive and unique sort of villain. Second, the love story. I completely disagree with other reviewers on this. Rather than be superfluous, it was the motivation for the entire plot, and while our hero is undoubtedly too good for the object of his affections, I was in tears by the end. Hugo has a remarkable talent for breaking my heart, and yet I keep coming back for more. I guess that alone speaks for his genius as a writer.

The Toilers of the Sea (Modern Library Classics):
Set on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. The story is about a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local ship owner, Mess Lethierry. In typical Victor Hugo style, if you can get past the beginning description of every rock, tree, beach, cliff, tide, weather and geology of the area Toilers of the Sea becomes a book you can't put down. I found The Toilers of the Sea to be my favorite book by Hugo and indeed one of my favorite all time reads.