Translated by W. Moy Thomas
This novel was first published in Brussels in 1866, as Hugo was in exile from France at the time. An English translation quickly appeared in New York later that year, under the title The Toilers of the Sea, which is the translation featured in this collection. W. Moy Thomas was a renowned translator, as well as an acquaintance of Charles Dickens and a contributor to Household Words.
The novel is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 15 years in exile, and concerns a local man named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner. When Lethierry’s ship is wrecked on the Roches Douvres, a perilous reef, Deruchette promises to marry whomever can salvage the ship’s steam engine.