Toilers of the Sea was written by Victor Hugo while in exile.

This book gets a big thumbs down, boys and girls. What a labor it was to read this poorly written flop. What a waste of time.

The book fails. The author does the same thing Melville liked to do in Moby Dick, take entire chapters to describe aspects of nature that are of little importance to the reader. Sometimes it's so painful I shook the book with clenched fists in rage. It takes a cursory knowledge, an appreciation of subject matter in question, and the love and interest in the reader to describe something accurately and poignantly enough to achieve the briefest and most complete description possible. It's an art that Hugo has not developed. He piles on descriptions like someone piling twigs on a 4 story conflagration. It's pointless and it's boring as it adds absolutely nothing.

To describe an octopus in an entire chapter makes me furious... but to include that it does not have a beak when in fact it does makes me want to throw the book in the trash. This book nearly suffered the same fate as Moby Dick. I almost stopped reading.

The real tragedy was that the plot had to stop moving for these asinine lectures. When the plot resumed again it was sure to stop dead in its tracks for more descriptions. This book could have easily been written in 100 pages or less.

The little room left for the actual story stunted every chance for success this book may have had. The idea was good - Lonely, isolated, emotionally underdeveloped main character dares one act of extreme selflessness in a grand heroic act to win a lady's hand. To sacrifice himself, show his awe inspiring abilities, win her a fortune, and win love. It's a good idea.

Poor writing is this book's downfall. The end which Hugo chooses could have been great but it fails like the rest of the book. It's a poor attempt and it's embarrassing. I figured the ending out a couple chapters before it was to happen. I had to get through more descriptions about whatever the author chose to describe in order to prove I was correct.

Why describe 10 different kinds of flowers, the electromagnetic relationship of wind and sea, the anatomy of an octopus, when you are not an expert. You are an author and supposed to be an emotional educator - not a science professor. Moron. Idiot. Ass. Go paint and stop trying to explain to me things that you yourself do not understand. While you were busy trying to describe in 20 pages each individual nook and cranny of a cavern that your main character was to spend all of 2 pages in, your story foundered. Wtf were you thinking? Dumbass.

This is the reason reading fiction is painful. I try my best to stick with what the masses consider great books because I also find most of them to be. Then there is that one that slips in somehow. How is this book a classic? It has no right to be. It's horrible, plain and simple. It's an aberration of any great fictional story about triumph, tragedy, or love.

Thumbs down. You suck Hugo. I want the portion of my life I spent reading this book back.