Les Travailleurs de la mer

Gilliatt is an outcast on the island of Guernsey, shunned by his neighbours as a sorcerer, who falls in love with Deruchette, niece of the shipowner Mess Lethierry. When Lethierry's steamship is wrecked on the Douvres rocks, Gilliatt promises to salvage its engine in exchange for Deruchette's hand. Hugo describes his lonely, desperate struggle against the sea, tides, storms and a giant octopus.

For readers of nineteenth-century adventure and romance who like Hugo's long descriptive passages on the sea and labour. It is a different book from Les Misérables, more physical and elemental.

Balanced in tone; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?