The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1252: Chapter 153: Empire Publishing_2

Disraeli clutched his collar as if he had heard some horrific news, adding drama to himself like a protagonist going through separation and death in classical drama: “Money? Material desire! Yes, it’s these things that have corrupted our ancient and beautiful English society! Heine’s book is very popular, that’s true, but as a well-known magazine, ‘British’, our shoulders also bear a more sacred mission! We cannot let the opinions of German petty citizens, decaying radical republican thoughts, and loss of ethical and moral concepts infect this land!”

Heine heard this and snorted dismissively: “Then start by pulling down Eld Carter’s works!”

“Shut up!” Disraeli immediately felt guilty when Heine mentioned Eld.

Although officially the bestselling authors of ‘British’ are Great Dumas, Dickens, and Disraeli, in reality, if you count those works that couldn’t be published through official channels, the print volume’s biggest author would be none other than Eld Carter.

Even excluding Carter’s poetry collection ‘Flowers of Evil’, banned by the House of Commons Publishing Committee, this famous Royal Navy military writer still published collections such as ‘Smell and Know Woman’, ‘Hangover East District’, ‘Amazon Jungle’, ‘Dolphin Adventure’, ‘Five knots’, ‘British Monk’s Sea Journey to the West’, and ‘Look! White Bone Spirit’.

Although these short stories are doomed to not be discussed publicly, nor pass book publishing censorship, you have to admit that whether it’s the upper class or middle class, everyone loves such stories. Even illiterate lower-class workers enjoy squeezing into East District taverns in their spare time to hear storytellers narrate a few of these adult tales.

Moreover, because these crudely made suspicious books mostly printed through underground channels don’t need to pay taxes, the printing costs are also very low. Therefore, their selling price is very friendly. Even if the price of such single-volume story collections is pressed down to 6 Shilling, an investment return rate as high as 80% can still be obtained.

The combination of a huge market, low prices, and high investment return further promoted its spread.

Later, even when ‘British’ felt embarrassed by earning such shameful money and stopped privately distributing these short story collections, they couldn’t stop underground pirates from continuing to reprint Eld’s unnamed masterpieces.

In response to this phenomenon, ‘British’ original shareholder Sir Arthur Hastings also privately expressed literary criticism on this phenomenon.

“These books belong to a new category of fashionable novels. Although I’m very reluctant, I have to admit: Eld has made a unique historical contribution to the development of erotic literature, and he is a revolutionary figure in the history of British literature development. If ‘Fanny Hill’s Memoirs’ can be regarded as realistic erotic literature, then Eld’s boring essays belong to romantic vulgar novels. Nowadays, I hear many people praising Charles Dickens as the new Shakespeare, actually Eld should also enjoy the same praise; he’s equally Shakespeare, except his achievements belong underground.”

Such a phenomenon also urged the editorial department of ‘British’ to deeply reflect.

In an internal meeting earlier this year, after a collective vote by the shareholders, everyone unanimously believed that they should show the courage to part with the embarrassing startup era and take on the social responsibility of promoting progressive thoughts as ‘British’ should.

Of course, not all shareholders voted in favor, Great Dumas expressed his indignation at the decision to ban Eld’s essays.

Honest and sincere Mr. Dumas believed: Eld doesn’t have many strengths, if you don’t let him write even these things, what’s left will all be weaknesses?

Great Dumas also angrily denounced Disraeli at the meeting, believing that this kid started pretending to be aloof after being elected as a member of Parliament, wanting to turn ‘British’ into a Gospel for priests to preach. For this, he also dropped harsh words and reminded everyone: The reason ‘British’ could succeed is due to its inherent positioning in fashionable novels; although Eld’s works are somewhat vulgar, not suitable for direct publication on the page. However, if we blindly refuse the principle of consistent diversification, like this going forward, how will we differ from ‘Blackwood’s’?

Great Dumas’s strong opposition made this shareholder meeting end hastily, but how to properly handle vulgar novels, serious literature, artistic criticism, and other unsuitable articles unified on the ‘British’ page remains a problem.

Just when Heine mentioned Eld’s matters, Arthur glanced at the academic papers scattered on the table, and suddenly a new idea sparked in his mind.

According to academic conference conventions, the academic reports here should be organized into volumes and published uniformly.

Yet little Gottingen has no decent publisher, so whenever professors here want to publish academic papers, they can only submit them to academic journals in places like Berlin or Munich.

Such a good opportunity, rather than letting others take advantage, why not give it to ‘British’?

Of course, this doesn’t mean publishing scientific papers in a literary magazine like ‘British’, but to create a new magazine in the way of founding the supplement ‘Economist’.