Artists impression of planned Victor Hugo bench revealed

Guernsey Arts Commission has released an artists impression of plans for a statue remembering the life and work of Victor Hugo.

The proposal for the life-size bronze statue in town has been submitted to the States.

Local artist, Mark Cook says the concept is for the statue to reference Hugo’s ‘Toilers of the Sea’; the novel written whilst he was in Guernsey.

The author bought Hauteville House in Guernsey in 1856 after being exiled from France for opposing Napoleon III.

He penned both of his famous novels Les Misérables and Toilers of the Sea while living there.

The novel which is dedicated to the Island tells the story of a Guernseyman named Gilliatt - a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local ship-owner, Lethierry.

When Lethierry’s ship, the Durande, is wrecked on the Roches Douvres, Deruchette promises to marry whoever can salvage the ship’s steam engine.

Gilliatt eagerly volunteers, and the story follows his physical trials and tribulations, which include a battle with an octopus.

The finished model will then be taken to a foundry in Oxfordshire for casting in bronze.

The Guernsey Art Commission says the total cost of transport and casting will be in the region of £75,000.