Toilers of the Sea, The

Verona: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club, 1960. Dedicated to the Island of Guernsey

HUGO, Victor. The Toilers of the Sea. In the translation by Isabel F. Hapgood and with an introduction by Matthew Josephson. Illustrated with wood-engravings by Tranquillo Marangoni. Verona: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club, 1960.

Limited to 1,500 copies signed by Giovanni Mardersteig and Tranquillo Marangoni, this being no. 1201.

Large octavo (10 5/16 x 7 1/8 inches; 262 x 181 mm.). xxii, 578, [4] pp. Illustrated with numerous woodcuts by Tranquillo Marangoni.

Publisher's quarter black (truncated) cloth over green patterned boards, spine stamped in gold and green leaf. A fine copy in the original pale gray dust jacket, spine printed in green and housed in the original pale green cardboard slipcase.

Victor Marie Hugo (1802- 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements.

The Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs de la Mer) is a novel by Victor Hugo that was first published in 1866. The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 19 years in exile. Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to transmute seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest calibre. The Toilers of the Sea is set just after the Napoleonic Wars and deals with the impact of the Industrial Revolution upon the island. The story concerns a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner, Mess Lethierry. When Lethierry's ship is wrecked on the Roches Douvres, a perilous reef, Deruchette promises to marry whoever can salvage the ship's steam engine. Gilliatt eagerly volunteers, and the story follows his physical trials and tribulations, which include a battle with an octopus, as well as the undeserved disapproval and criticism of his neighbors.

Limited Editions Club Bibliography, 314. (Inventory #: 03170)