The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1583: Chapter 16: Cultural Trust: The Empire Publishing Group’s First Step (Part 2)

And this is reflected in their collective support for Disraeli’s candidacy for the position of Member of Parliament. Mr. Disraeli’s election success was partly due to his personal efforts and the course of history; however, on another hand, one must consider that the authors of ”The British” spared no expense or effort in supporting him.

If it weren’t for that, given Disraeli’s dreadful financial situation, how could he have possibly pulled two or three thousand pounds from his pockets as campaign funds?

The road to Westminster Palace for Lower House Member, Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, was paved with friends each donating a pound, laid out brick by brick with solid gold without a trace of silver mixed in.

Hence, when Arthur candidly shared with his friends the insights he gained from the recent Caucasus incident, even the most economically minded Disraeli softened his opposition.

Publishing a cheap magazine might not be considered lucrative, but the benefits of expanding the reader base and enhancing opinion influence could aid Disraeli even more than Arthur.

For someone like Arthur, whose ambitions lie with the Civil Service, public opinion primarily serves to cover for him and patch up holes, such as preventing Palmerston from taking action against him. However, public opinion cannot decide his career advancement; his official destiny ultimately depends on those who appoint him.

But for Disraeli, an MP who relies on votes, public opinion is almost everything. If he could truly garner enough support on this front, he might even realize his grand ambition from years past—standing independently here, without relying on any party.

Once Disraeli changed his stance, everything else became easier.

In terms of decision-making for ”The British,” Dickens, who always regarded Arthur as a benefactor, followed him unwaveringly.

Tennyson, who was pulled out of a deep abyss by Arthur during his low in life after dropping out of Cambridge, also supported him.

As for the carefree Dumas, he always had his own mind. But this chubby fellow had financial issues—wherever there was danger, he dared to invest, worried not about failures, and adored Hugo’s opinion leader role more than being wealthy. If ”The British” offered such an opportunity, even by a small margin, he would gladly invest.

As for Heine...

Regardless, Heine joined ”The British” later, held little say, and had few shares.

Despite this, having seen Arthur pay his bills graciously multiple times and the continuous manuscript fees from ”The British,” he was long mesmerized by Arthur’s authoritative yet elegant strokes of the pen.

If you still don’t understand, perhaps you should look at Heine’s literary review article last year in ”The Constitutional Newspaper” in Paris for ”The British.”

——Recently, we’ve seen Parisian readers frequently discussing the detective novel, a new genre quickly dominating bookstore recommendation lists. Fundamentally, who pioneered this fresh genre? In its birthplace London, readers generally agree that the origin of detective novels is Arthur Sigma.

——Or in other words, he is the ”Faraday of York,” ”Rossini made famous in Leipzig,” ”Liszt of London,” Sir Arthur Hastings. Oh, I apologize, maybe that’s disrespectful, Liszt should more aptly be called ”Paris’ Hastings,” but the impoverished version. Because unlike Arthur’s varied talents, aside from piano, he knows nothing else...

Seeing everyone support Arthur’s opinion, Disraeli, after a moment of struggle, nodded in agreement based on the philosophy of ”an itch from countless fleas or worry of numerous debts makes no difference.” After all, what’s another thousand pounds compared to already owing three thousand?

”Arthur, let’s discuss your plan.”

For Arthur, writing a business plan is far more intriguing than tedious, grueling diplomatic reports.

This peculiar person, working consistently for over 12-14 hours daily since 1829, couldn’t be idle even without official duties.

”Although three-volume novels still dominate the market, we must not overlook ongoing changes. Since ’The British’ triumphed, literary magazines using serialized novels as their selling method have sprouted up like mushrooms.”

Arthur confidently outlined the major current threats on the blackboard behind him: ”First, I’ve never doubted the author strength within ’The British.’ I might exaggerate a bit, but regardless of ’Blackwood’s,’ ’Cornhill,’ or ’Temple Bar,’ no matter how our competitors smear us, ’The British’ leads Britain in terms of author pool. We have the Gauss of fashionable novels: Alexander Dumas; the Poisson of British literature: Charles Dickens; the Voltaire of political novels: Benjamin Disraeli; the new Goethe of the German poetry world, and a mini-Chaucer of Britain: Heinrich Heine and Alfred Tennyson. Naturally, we also have the Shakespeare of erotic literature: Mr. Eld Carter.”