Have you ever thought about winning someone’s heart?  Going “all out” for them, exploring all avenues, leaving no stone unturned, giving them the ultimate grand gesture?  There is perhaps a subtle hint in thinking one needs a grand gesture to win someone’s heart in the first place.  In Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, our hero Gilliatt battles the sea itself in order to secure a young lady’s hand in marriage.  He uses up every physical, mental, and emotional part of his being to accomplish a feat only braved in the first place by the truly obsessed. 

Set in the Channel islands between England and France, this story was one of the most exciting I have ever read.  It is man versus nature on an epic scale, and after reading the ending, I think nature won.  The story is a testament to what man can accomplish when he goes “all in”—amazing, amazing things.  Jaw dropping things.  Stupendous things!  Things that perhaps would impress a young women.  But, as Gilliatt learns, sometimes grand gestures aren’t enough.  In the end, that’s all he has, one amazing, mind boggling feat. 

The Toilers of the Sea was hard to put down.  It’s Victor Hugo, so the entire beginning is a travelogue on the Channel islands, the story itself embellished with detailed descriptions, historical, religious, and philosophical diatribes, explanations of superstition and the like.  The writing is much like the sea, to and fro, back and forth, a restless narrative wholly supporting the plot, reinforcing just what Gilliatt’s obsession would bring to the young lady, Déruchette’s, quiet, simple life.  Many times I was afraid to turn the page due to how stressed out I got for Gilliatt, who ends up in the fight of his life.  There is something distinctly terrifying about what he accomplishes, all for a woman he has never even talked to and doesn’t really know.     

Hugo wrote this epic while he was exiled on the island of Guernsey for opposing Napoleon III.  He characterizes the people of the Channel islands as both religious and highly superstitious.  Even the good deeds our hero Gilliatt does are often met with suspicion.  But perhaps the suspicion is warranted.  Though Gilliatt knows what ultimate Christian goodness is and faith in God might be, he never gets there, except in one, desperate moment.  His focus is on this world, and the triumph of his grand gesture is ultimately hollow.  It’s as if he can only relate to the physical and peers through a window at the rest, true life, true love, true spirituality.  His obsession, his very physical obsession, is ultimately his undoing.  

In the preface, Hugo states: “Religion, society, and nature; these are the three struggles of man.  The three conflicts are, at the same time, his three needs: It is necessary for him to believe, hence the temple; it is necessary for him to create, hence the city; it is necessary for him to live, hence the plow and the ship.”  The Toilers of the Sea highlights nature.  Two of Hugo’s other great works, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Les Miserables deal with religion and society, respectively.     

One more thing: This story would make a fantastic movie or miniseries, especially with the capabilities we now have with CGI.