The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1378: Chapter 200: Alkadia Literary Society

The one responsible for incorrectly exporting British culture heard this and had to shamelessly admit, ”I clearly pointed out in the book: that’s just a small group of people, not everyone. Besides, your view of Britain is completely because you haven’t been to Paris. Don’t you know that Paris has many theaters offering semi-nude performances for a moderate fee? In my opinion, the popularity of whips was probably brought to London by the French.”

”Ha, looks like you have something to dispute with the cultural advisor of France.” Gogol laughed heartily, then paused for a moment, turned his head to Arthur, and asked, ”Wait, you said ’Hastings Case Files’ was written by you?”

”Why? Do I have to take you to London for a whip fest for you to believe it? What do you think my surname is? And where do you think my cultural advisor title comes from?”

”Arthur Hastings? ’Hastings Case Files’?” Gogol exclaimed in surprise, ”My God! Are you really Arthur Sigma?”

At this point, Gogol couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous, ”I truly envy you, your inspiration is like a fountain. ’Hastings Case Files’ is released one after another. Haven’t you ever run out of ideas?”

”Occasionally.” Arthur replied honestly, ”But that book wasn’t my solo effort. I have a chatterbox-like assistant, a dull guy who constantly has endless stories to tell. Many of my ideas come from him. For example, the latest ’King Solomon’s Resurrection’ in ’Case Files’ is his brilliant inspiration.”

”Ah... looks like you really achieved fame, not only living a comfortable life with manuscript fees and being able to afford an assistant but also gaining the cultural advisor position with your talent. As for me, although I earned a bit, earning a deputy professor position is a struggle.”

Arthur laughed and replied, ”Don’t you know Rukovski and Pushkin? Haven’t you asked them for help? One is the Crown Prince’s teacher, and the other is the poet celebrated across Russia. If they are willing to speak up, everything surely will fall into place.”

Gogol was full of complaints, ”It would be nice if it were true. Rukovski and Pushkin are very famous, and they both love me very much. I asked them to write a recommendation letter on my behalf, and Dashkov and Bludov also spoke for me. But Brad Kay from Kyiv University isn’t swayed. He said he can’t give me the world history teaching post because thus far, he hasn’t seen me produce a sufficiently convincing thesis. I sent him volumes of my ’History of Little Russia Cossacks’, but this work, which even Education Minister Uvarov and Pushkin praised, seems insignificant in his eyes.”

When Arthur heard this, he analyzed while pinching his chin, ”I think this situation doesn’t look very optimistic...”

Gogol quickly asked, ”Do you have any insights?”

Arthur spoke, ”Normally, if the Education Minister believes you can handle that position, and many cultural icons have spoken well of you, the inspector should give you the deputy professor position, and everyone would remember his favor. But, if this offered benefit he doesn’t take, then there’s probably only one possibility left.”

”What possibility?”

Arthur explained based on his experience, ”The position you want might already be reserved for someone else. But since Rukovski and Pushkin wrote to the inspector, he doesn’t want to directly offend this group, so he’s only prolonging your application, waiting until everyone forgets about this, you naturally would be out. You’ve been thinking because you qualify for the job, you should try to show your competence to the inspector, but that’s a misstep from the start.”

Speaking of this, Arthur didn’t forget to lecture Gogol, ”You mentioned you once worked in the Russian land department, but you haven’t grasped the intricacies there at all.”

”Ah...”

Gogol was awakened by Arthur’s insights, ”Well... alas, although I indeed worked in the land department, I was... let’s say, I rarely stuck to anything in my life. I spent my days just passing, and in my spare time, I studied writing and painting with my classmates... But, this doesn’t mean I am useless, I simply have little interest in being an official. You know, you don’t make much money in the department, if you want to live a wealthy life based on that job, you inevitably have to do unscrupulous things. Those things, I really can’t bring myself to do.”

When Arthur heard this, he only joked, ”Can’t do those things, so you could move on to teaching at the women’s college? If that’s the case, the Russian government is more humane than the British government.”

Gogol rolled his eyes, ”It’s not that easy, you’re too optimistic. You don’t know, just to leave the department, I came up with an idea. I claimed to have hemorrhoids and deemed it to be a terribly dangerous disease known only to God. But later, I found out that in St. Petersburg, no one is without hemorrhoids. Eventually, perhaps God punished me for lying, so I actually did get them.