Recommended by
- Thomas Edison The Founders podcast names Hugo's maritime novel among Edison's favorites; the exact edition he read is unverified, so no ISBN is attached. source ↗
Summary
Victor Hugo's 1866 novel set on the island of Guernsey, following fisherman Gilliatt's struggle to salvage a steamship wrecked on a reef — a battle against the sea, the rocks, and a giant octopus, undertaken to win the hand of the shipowner's daughter. The novel is a meditation on man's relationship with the natural world, the solitude of heroic effort, and the indifference of fate to human striving. It is the least-read of Hugo's major novels but contains some of his most vivid descriptive writing.