Shadow of great britain

While Blackwell was still thinking about Arthur's words, Arthur had already stood up from the sofa.

He was leaning on a beautifully carved cane. Although his short black hair was slightly messy due to the north wind, he still looked aristocratic when paired with the well-tailored black tuxedo he had just received yesterday as he walked among the rows of bookshelves. .

The store clerk was still yawning while sorting out the books that had not been returned last night, when he suddenly heard a mixed Russian and French accent coming from his ears.

Arthur's eyes glanced around the store with a hint of scrutiny: "I want to buy some authentic Russian literature. Do you have any recommendations?"

The shop clerk was stunned for a moment. He first looked at this unfamiliar gentleman. He was used to receiving middle-class scholars and the occasional wealthy children, so he had long developed the ability to read people.

But this stranger did not look like those dandy boys who squandered their inheritance, nor did he look like those poor students and junior civil servants who carefully flipped through the pages of books but did not dare to pay for them. Coupled with his strange accent, this gentleman's identity is already obvious. He is either a foreigner or a newly naturalized Russian.

People like this are not uncommon in Petersburg. Any Russian aristocrat with some money likes to hire a British Jones or a French Kirk to teach their children, and even the Tsar is no exception in this regard.

If you are a university professor born and raised in Russia, you can only be awarded an eighth-grade civil service title.

Even if you want to save face and shamelessly ask for help, the most they will do is call you 'Major'.

But if you are invited from abroad, it is very different.

Foreign professors can start directly from the fifth-grade civil service, which is at the same level as the rectors of Moscow State University and Petersburg University.

When you go out, even if you don't mention it, people will respectfully call you "general".

You can tell at a glance that the guest in front of you is not an ordinary tutor. If he is not a foreign professor, he is at least a foreign rich man, or a great diplomat.

"Please wait a moment, sir." The clerk bowed hurriedly, turned around and got behind the bookshelf.

Not long after, he trotted back with a stack of the best-selling Russian books in the store: "What do you think of these? Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" and "Poltava" And "Roslavlev", Zhukovsky's "Lyudmila", Bulgarin's "Ivan Vizhkin", and... these are the literary works that best represent Russia ”

Arthur didn't answer, he just raised his cane and pointed at the pile of books in the clerk's hand and said, "Wrap these for me."

"There are also this row, this row and this row." Arthur pointed in the direction of several different bookshelves in succession, his voice calm and determined: "I want them all."

The store clerk's hands were already trembling. He quickly put a copy of Nikolai Karamzin's "Russian History" on the counter, and then moved the book with a yellowed spine that had been placed in the store for some time. Years of "Russian Military System".

He couldn't help but have a thought in his mind: "With so many books, can this gentleman really afford them all?"

But when he saw the gold coin lifted by Arthur's fingernails and sliding in an arc in the air, falling into his palm, the last trace of doubt in the man's heart disappeared immediately.

The movement here quickly attracted the attention of the bookseller. He was a middle-aged man with a slightly fat body and a flattering smile on his face. His shrewd eyes saw the tuxedo on Arthur and the faint trace of his waist. When the gold watch chain was exposed, there was an instant added layer of respect.

He hurriedly put down his work and walked over. While instructing the boys to wrap the books in good parchment, he hurriedly bowed: "Dear Sir! It is really an honor for our store to have you here today! I can guarantee that , our collection of books is second to none in all of St. Petersburg, and every book here will make a great addition to your bookshelf.”

Arthur ignored him at all and pointed to several more bookshelves: "Get a copy of each."

"You have extraordinary taste!" The bookseller felt ecstatic in his heart. Although he didn't want to look like a money man, he couldn't take the smile off his face: "Oh, God has really given you a pair of discerning eyes. You What a discerning person! These books are all high-quality books shipped directly from Paris, and they are masterpieces that Mr. Pushkin has also recommended!”

Arthur frowned when he heard this: "Are you sure these books were shipped from Paris? Do the French think of "Napoleon was defeated by the Russian Emperor Alexander I near Paris", "The Russians who taught Napoleon to dance", "Napoleon's Winter" Titles like "Napoleon's New Army of Strange Men" and "Russian Hercules Drive Out the French"?

"Ah!" The bookseller's smile suddenly froze, and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes. He waved hastily, and the flattery on his face instantly turned to embarrassment: "Sir, you misunderstood, misunderstood! I thought..."

He held it in for a long time and didn't know how to explain it, so he had to use anger to excuse himself. He grabbed a boy who was moving books and scolded him: "Didn't I tell you not to enter such books? Who is it? Who is it? Putting these books on my bookshelf really brings down the quality of our bookstore!”

Arthur casually opened one of the books and raised his hand to dissuade him: "It doesn't matter. I think these books are actually quite interesting. Give me two copies of each. I'll keep one for myself and send the other." To my French friends.”

"Ah! So you like this type of book?"

The bookseller suddenly seemed to have discovered "The Book of Wealth", and he quickly recommended: "How about you come with me to the third floor to have a look? There are all good French novels there! The most outstanding one is De Kock . Such as "The Husband Transformed by the Wife", "Wives, Husbands and Lovers", "My Wife's Son", "The Barber of Paris", and "From the Countryside" "Beauty", we have them all here. Reading French novels is the best way to pass the time, and at the salon banquet, as long as you bring out these novels, it will open up the chat box of ladies and ladies. Women love these novels from Paris. Whether it’s perfume, novels, French food or fashion, they even want to marry a Frenchman.”

Paul de Kock?

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

If today's popular novels are divided into three categories: high, middle and low-end, then Alexandre Dumas is undoubtedly the absolute king ruling the high-end segment, while Mr. Coker dominates the mid-range market. As for the low-end segment...

Since most novel genres in the low-end field are not popular in any country, writers who make a living from this usually change places and pen names after publishing a book to prevent being criticized by other countries. The newspaper prosecutor caught him red-handed.

Therefore, there is currently no author with sufficient appeal in this field.

But as the saying goes, gold always shines. Even if you often change your pen name and fail to gather a fan base, there are still people who can break out of the encirclement with their strong personal strength and write popular books and banned books. For example, a certain The famous author of "The Englishman".

Sure enough, when the bookseller saw Arthur didn't nod, he immediately lowered his voice and asked in a low voice: "How about I show you the hard goods? Generally speaking, only regular customers get this treatment, but in business, once comes twice. I’m familiar with it, so there’s no need to pay too much attention to those rules.”

Arthur was not uninterested in the bookseller's proposal, but the problem was - hard goods were not available today.

Arthur snapped his fingers and called his secretary's name: "Henry."

Blackwell quickly picked up his briefcase and stood up: "Sir."

Arthur pointed to the pile of books covering the counter: "You contact the bookstore, make a book purchase list, and then go through the process to reimburse the embassy."

Blackwell is obviously not surprised by this situation. Compared with previous cultural counselors who used diplomatic funds to eat, drink, and gamble, at least buying books is really linked to the study of culture.

While the secretary was keeping accounts, Arthur asked him about the current situation in the Russian cultural world: "I think Russia and the UK are about the same. Nowadays, they are all dominated by fashionable novels."

Blackwell nodded while taking notes: "This is indeed the case. Since the emergence of fantasy novels, adventures, pornography and storytelling, the early Russian Saints' Acts, Ecumenical Legends and the like have The traditional books were pushed to the margins of the literary field, just like the religious rituals in the history of ancient Russia before Christianization.”

Arthur casually picked up the book "Russian Strongmen Expelled the French": "Are these types of books very popular in Russia recently?"

"This kind?"

Blackwell scratched his head: "Actually, it's not just recently. This kind of book appeared after the War of 1812, and has always been very popular in the market. However, because Uvarov came up with a book two years ago, 'Official people's character theory', what it says: Orthodox Christianity, autocracy and people's character are the last hope for the great cause of Russian society, so the existing education in Russia must be changed situation, to enhance students’ understanding of the history and culture of their own nation, and to resist the corrosion of Western ideas by enhancing national self-confidence culturally. Therefore, in the past two years, the Russian government has begun to increase policy support for such works. Government subsidies are given to writers who write such subjects. There are more people who can make money and write. In this regard, the Russians are no different from the British."

At this point, Blackwell was afraid that Arthur was not familiar with the Russian government's "Official List", so he added: "Uvarov previously served as the Moscow school inspector. He was awarded the title for proposing the 'official people's theory' Having received the appreciation of the Tsar, he has now been promoted to minister in charge of the Ministry of National Education.”

After saying that, Blackwell also gave his own opinion in a timely manner: "But, this book "Russian Hercules Expels the French" is really poorly written. If you want to study the progress in this area, I can give it to you. Can you recommend some books? The books by Zagoskin, Bulgarin and Grech are all worth reading. Krylov’s comedies are also very funny and far more interesting than these inferior books.”

When Arthur heard this, he finally understood how the ‘Slavic faction’ and the ‘Western faction’, who were at odds with each other in the Russian literary world today, had come to such a fight.

In the past, there were frequent exchanges between the two factions. A courageous person like Karamzin still had the courage to publicly shout out at the ceremony of being elected as an academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1818: "Peter the Great transformed the motherland with his powerful means." , turning us into people similar to Europeans, there is no point in complaining, the spiritual connection between ancient Rus and modern Russians is forever broken.”

But if anyone dares to shout such a sentence in public now, they probably feel that they are not satisfied with the stick in the third game.

At least for now, the official articles in the Petersburg newspapers are all about Tyutchev’s famous saying – Russian bread cannot be made in other people’s ways.

Arthur was still thinking about where to start his 'cultural work' when he suddenly heard a fierce quarrel upstairs.

"You asked about "Night Talk in the Suburbs of Dikanka"? To hell with it! I won't make a second one!"

"Are you really not considering it? Mr. Gogol, this book is selling very well! You will make a lot of money. Let me pay you five thousand rubles and you can think about it again. You know, Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" sold so well, but it only cost 12,000 rubles, which is already a very high price! "

"So what if it sells well? Although it is not unnecessary for me to make money, writing for the sake of three melons and two dates only adds to the story, so I won't do it! I don't have any talent for speculation. If you hadn't reminded me, I would have even forgotten that I was the author of "Nights in the Suburbs of Dikanka"!"

"What about the characters? The fate of the characters in your book is not over yet. Readers are eagerly waiting for you to write the second one."

"The fate of the characters? No one knows their fate! For the time being, I can't write anything significant, great, or artistic."

"Then would you consider writing a poem? Pushkin's poem costs ten rubles per line. Since this is your first time writing, I will give you half of Pushkin's price. You can get five hundred rubles for writing a hundred lines, so why bother? Why not?”

"Writing poetry? I am doing nothing and taking no action right now. I don't want to write, and I can't think of anything. To sum it up in one sentence - I am intellectually constipated!"

Gogol walked downstairs angrily with a dark face and a sheepskin coat. It can be seen that he did not have an attack of hemorrhoids today, or maybe he had an attack but was too angry by the publishers to pester him, so he forgot about the pain. .

The women's college teacher who humiliated the military police colonel in the hotel has never returned. Gogol's temper has risen and he is even more arrogant than the Tsar in front of the publisher.

To sum up in his own words, all in all, his steps today were very fast.

As soon as Gogol came downstairs, he bumped into Arthur's smiling face. He almost threw himself into Arthur's arms before he could brake in time.

"You... Hestingoff?"

"Hestingoff?" Arthur took off his hat and stretched out his hand to greet him: "I don't hate this name, but it's still too rude to give someone a nickname when we first meet. Hello, Mr. Gogol "My lord, Sir Arthur Hastings."

Gogol looked like he had seen a ghost. He did not want to have anything to do with this person.

No matter what the purpose of this British guy is pretending to be a military police colonel, it is not something he wants to get involved in. He is an eighth-grade civil servant. His biggest wish at the moment is to find an associate professor position at Kiev University.

As for the upper-level struggle and the Decembrists, although he had some opinions in his heart, he never talked about it.

He is different from Pushkin. Although the two are friends, and Gogol is still a fanatical supporter of Pushkin, please do not elevate your idol behavior to that of a fan.

After all, he didn't have as much face as Pushkin. Even in front of the Tsar, Pushkin could still express his feelings without changing his expression.

When the Tsar asked Pushkin face to face in the palace: "If you were in Petersburg on December 14th, what would you do?"

"Then I will also join the ranks of the rebels." Pushkin replied.

What is even more unexpected is that when Pushkin spoke like this, the Tsar did not do anything to him. Instead, he praised Pushkin as an honest man, and even issued an edict to pardon him from exile and return him to Petersburg, and promised that Pushkin could live in Moscow. and Petersburg or anywhere else in the country, including several summer palaces where the Tsar used his vacations.

If you want to ask, what is the only flaw?

That is, the Tsar gave Pushkin a great honor. From now on, the Tsar, Nicholas I himself, would be the only censor of Pushkin's works.

After the news of Pushkin's amnesty came out, it caused a sensation all over Russia. Moscow, which was already very lively and busy because of the coronation ceremony of the new tsar, attracted many foreign readers. Muscovites and the whole of Russia The literary world celebrated Pushkin's return as the most important event.

Gogol believed that he was not as big as Pushkin, let alone Pushkin's influence. If he was involved in any political incident, he would probably be on the tiger bench in the third game.

As we all know, people with hemorrhoids are not suitable to sit on the bench.

Gogol moved his steps and rubbed Arthur's shoulder to escape, but how could he escape from the clutches of this British guy?

Arthur's hand locked his arm like an iron vice, and the cultural counselor lowered his voice in his ear: "Mr. Gogol, is the position of associate professor at Kiev University so worthless to you?"