The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1375: Chapter 199: The British Claw, Part 2

”Ah! So you like this type of book?”

The bookseller suddenly seemed to find a ”get-rich-quick scheme,” and hurriedly recommended: ”How about following me to the third floor for a look? It’s full of top-notch French novels there! The most outstanding one is De Cocq. We have everything here like ’The Husband Changed by His Wife,’ ’Wife, Husband, and Lover,’ ’The Child of My Wife,’ ’The Barber of Paris,’ and ’Beauty from the Suburbs.’ Reading French novels is the best way to pass the time, and when you mention them at salon parties, it’s as if you’ve opened the ladies’ chatterbox. Women love these things from Paris, whether it’s perfume, novels, French cuisine, or fashion; they even want to marry a Frenchman.”

Paul de Cocq?

Arthur felt something amiss as soon as he heard the name.

If contemporary popular novels are divided into high, medium, and low tiers, then without a doubt, Great Dumas is the absolute ruler of the high-end tier, while Mr. Cocq dominates the mid-tier market. As for the low-end...

Since most novel categories in the low-end tier are unwelcome in any country, authors who make a living from them often move from place to place, changing their pen names with each new book to avoid being caught by the book and newspaper prosecutors of various countries.

Thus, there currently isn’t any author in this tier with enough influence.

But as the saying goes, real gold will always shine. Even if frequent pen name changes prevent gathering a fanbase, there are still those who rely on solid personal skills to break through the encirclement, achieving a hit with every publication and facing bans with every writing, like a certain ”Britisher” renowned author.

Predictably, seeing Arthur not nodding, the bookseller immediately lowered his voice and whispered, ”How about I show you the hard stuff? Generally, only regulars get this treatment, but doing business, you know, one becomes familiar after a couple of times, so there’s no need to fuss over formalities.”

Arthur wasn’t entirely uninterested in the bookseller’s suggestion, but the problem was—checking out the hard stuff couldn’t happen today.

Arthur snapped his fingers, calling out the secretary’s name: ”Henry.”

Blackwell hurriedly clutched the briefcase and stood up: ”Sir.”

Arthur pointed at the pile of books stacked on the counter: ”Coordinate with the bookstore, make a book purchase list, then proceed to have the expense reimbursed through the embassy.”

Blackwell was evidently used to this kind of situation; compared to the previous cultural attachés using diplomatic funds for eating, drinking, visiting brothels, and gambling, at least buying books is genuinely connected to cultural research.

Taking advantage of the secretary’s bookkeeping, Arthur inquired about the current state of the Russian cultural scene: ”It seems Russia isn’t so different from Britain; nowadays, trendy novels have taken over.”

While taking notes, Blackwell nodded: ”That’s indeed the situation. Ever since issues like fantasy novels, adventure tales, erotica, and narrative styles emerged, they have pushed traditional books like early Russian saint legends and grand duke sagas to the margins of the literary field, much like those religious rituals in ancient Russian history before Christianization.”

Arthur casually picked up a book titled ”Russian Strongman Expelling the Frenchman”: ”Is this kind of book popular in Russia recently?”

”This kind?”

Blackwell scratched his head: ”Actually, it’s not just recently; such books appeared after the War of 1812 and have remained popular. However, due to Uvarov proposing the ’official nationality theory’ a couple of years ago, claiming that Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality are the last hope for Russia’s grand enterprise, thus necessitating a change in the existing education system in Russia to enhance students’ grasp of their country’s historical culture, and by boosting national confidence through cultural means, to resist the corrosion of Western ideas. Therefore, in recent years, the Russian government has started to support such works through policies, granting government subsidies to authors who create in this genre. With money to be made, naturally, more people write them. In this regard, Russians aren’t much different from Britons.”

At this point, Blackwell, fearing Arthur wasn’t yet familiar with the Russian government’s ”official roster,” added: ”Uvarov previously served as the Inspector of Moscow, and because of proposing the ’official nationality theory,’ he gained the Tsar’s favor and has now been promoted to Minister overseeing the Ministry of National Education.”

After speaking, Blackwell timely offered his view: ”However, books like this ’Russian Strongman Expelling the Frenchman’ are poorly written. If you’re interested in researching this progress, I can recommend a few; books by Zagorsk, Bulgarin, and Glechi are all worth reading, and Krelov’s comedies are equally amusing, far more interesting than these inferior books.”

Listening to this, Arthur finally understood how the current fierce conflict between the ’Slavist’ and ’Western School’ factions on the Russian literary scene developed to such an extent.

In the past, these two factions often exchanged views; daring individuals like Karamzin even had the courage to openly declare at the ceremony of becoming a Peterburg Academy of Sciences’ member in 1818: ”Peter the Great transformed our motherland with his strong hands, turning us into people similar to Europeans. Complaining is pointless; the spiritual connection between Ancient Rus and modern Russians has been eternally severed.”

But now, anyone daring to make such a statement publicly is likely due to finding the Third Bureau’s stick not savvy enough.