“The Atlantic wears away our coasts.”
Victor Hugo must have been a pretty amazing person. Not only did he have an exceptional grasp of history, but his attention to detail far surpasses your average person and his descriptions illustrate this unusual ability. Add to that his artistic capacity for drawing, and you have quite an impressive composition of talents. He exhibits all three talents in The Toilers of the Sea, or Les Travailleurs de la Mer.
Running afoul of Napoleon III in 1851, Hugo fled France to Brussels and Jersey, finally settling in Guernsey in 1855 where he purchased Hauteville House in St. Peter Port. He spent 15 years in exile here. In his studio at the top of his house, with a stunning view of the harbour, it is there he finished his most famous novel, Les Miserables. While in Guernsey, Hugo rambled all over the island, often with his son, Charles, and his mistress, Julliette Drouet. In a notebook, he scrawled copious notes about the reefs, tides, currents and absolutely anything that caught his imagination. Les Travailleurs de la Mer was born out of his excursions.