read by Patrick Dickson
Apart from the plays of Ibsen and Chekov, which for some
reason have always been part of the so-called canon of English literature,
readers whose first language is English are not too keen on translations from
other tongues. And this is rarely because we can easily read them in the
original. Much Greek and Latin writing is unfamiliar to modern readers, let
alone the Decameron or the Divine Comedy. Crime and Punishment, Dr
Zhivago, Don Quixote and a few
others (the Bible, for example) might be exceptions, but English versions of
writers in other languages are, comparatively speaking, few and often centuries
between.
Victor Hugo’s novels and short stories are little known except
in different media, such as the phenomenally successful ‘Les Mis’ or the stage,
feature film and cartoon versions of The
Hunchback of Notre Dame. So it is a treat to hear Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea, a tale that has been
filmed many times but deserves to be read or listened to in this exceptional
audiobook by Patrick Dickson.
Dickson has used the nineteenth-century translation by William
Moy Thomas, which shows its age on the printed page but is cleverly brought up
to date in Dickson’s abridgement. He has cut the digressions and kept the
grist, telling this sad tale of greed, courage, longing and disappointment
splendidly.
Set in the small French-speaking community of the Isle of
Guernsey, the story concentrates on the shipping business in the years after
the Napoleonic Wars. A sailor by the name of Gilliatt convinces himself that one
of the village girls, Deruchette, the niece of Mess Lethierry, a local ship
owner, is interested in him romantically. Gilliatt says nothing, but keeps his
eye on the girl and woos her with his plaintive bagpipes. When Lethierry’s ship
is wrecked on a reef, Deruchette unexpectedly promises to marry whoever can
salvage the ship’s steam engine, a piece of state of the art technology
signifying the encroaching industrial age. Gilliatt volunteers to undertake the
Herculean task of salvage, and the tale describes in detail the trials and
tribulations of the mission. He is driven by love, so overcomes all odds, including
a famous encounter with a giant octopus, one of the most famous parts of the
story:
‘Gilliatt recoiled; but he had scarcely power to move! He
was, as it were, nailed to the place. With his left hand, which was disengaged,
he seized his knife, which he still held between his teeth, and with that hand,
holding the knife, he supported himself against the rocks, while he made a
desperate effort to withdraw his arm. He succeeded only in disturbing his
persecutor, which wound itself still tighter. It was supple as leather, strong
as steel, cold as night.
A second form, sharp, elongated, and narrow, issued out
of the crevice, like a tongue out of monstrous jaws. It seemed to lick his
naked body. Then suddenly stretching out, it became longer and thinner, as it
crept over his skin, and wound itself round him. At the same time a terrible
sense of pain, comparable to nothing he had ever known, compelled all his
muscles to contract. He felt upon his skin a number of flat rounded points. It
seemed as if innumerable suckers had fastened to his flesh and were about to
drink his blood.’
An absorbing tale, full of atmosphere and suspense,
beautifully read, with a great range of characters and voices, this would make
a long car journey for a family audience enjoyable and rewarding.
The sound effects (seagulls) are effective and the music
(accordion, bagpipes and cello) is excellent, but by the end of the story you
feel they might, perhaps, have been used slightly less often.
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