Guernsey2005
- Year of the SeaAdmiral Lord de Saumarez
Lighthouses around Guernsey
Wrecks
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Sea Themes on Stamps
Maps of Old Guernsey
Victor Hugo - sea novels
Sailing Trust of Guernsey
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Victor Hugo - Sea Novels
Les Travailleurs
de la Mer - Toilers of the Sea, issued 24th April 1997.
The great French writer Victor Hugo arrived in Guernsey as a political refugee in 1855 and the island became his home for the next fifteen years. He produced much of his best known work in the rooftop study of his house, from where he could see the coastline of his beloved france on a clear day. He finished his historical novel, Les Miserables, in Guernsey, which appeared in 1862 to great critical acclaim.
Hugo was fascinated by the legends and stories of Guernsey. While taking a short holiday on Sark in 1859 he heard fishermen telling dramatic stories about marine monsters and he visited a cave frequented by a giant octopus. This gave him the germ of an idea for a novel which would eventually become Les Travailleurs de la Mer ( The Toilers of the Sea), published in 1866.
For this Hugo invented a mythical creature, the King of the Auxcriniers, who was "the greatest danger to the coasts of the Channel Islands". The novel's hero, Gilliatt, falls deeply in love with Deruchette, niece of the owner of the steamship Durande. When the ship is wrecked on a dangerous reef south of Guernsey, Gilliatt undertakes to salvage the vessel single-handed. After weeks of toil he succeeds, having endured a life- or-death struggle with a giant octopus in the process. Despite Gilliatt's heroism in bringing the Durande back to Guernsey he fails to win the hand of Deruchette. She marries a clergyman and as they set sail for England, Gilliatt watches from a rock out at sea. As the ship disappears over the horizon, Gilliatt ignores the rising tide and is drowned.
The stamps above show Gilliatt in his heroic fight while Hugo's face is ingeniously incorporated into the crest of a breaking wave. Later, out hero sits disconsolate on a rock as his love and her husband sail away....................
Text taken from information issused with the First Day Cover of the stamps above.