I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 137 Tolstoy and Herzen
Mikhail certainly put a lot of thought into the column planning of "Modern Man" magazine.

While the sales of a literary magazine ultimately depend on the quality of the works published, making the magazine more diverse and memorable is undoubtedly a good option.

Nekrasov was undoubtedly adept at this as well. As the magazine "The Contemporary" weathered its initial turbulent period, Nekrasov was preparing to further expand the magazine's sales through other means.

He recently came up with the idea of ​​giving away an illustrated collection of essays with every subscription to Modern People magazine.

Offering a free copy with the purchase of a magazine is not a particularly unusual promotional tactic in later generations, but it was certainly uncommon in those days. As a result, when this news spread, some people directly attacked Mikhail, the publisher of "The Modern Man," in the newspapers, accusing him of using intolerable methods to attract subscribers and degrading the magazine industry's standing in the public eye.

It was also said that Mikhail might soon promise to send each reader a bar of soap, a set of cutlery, or something similar.

Mikhail: “?”

Although they did consult me ​​about this matter and I agreed to it, why are they putting all the blame on me?

Nekrasov aimed to leverage this approach, while Mikhail innovated the magazine itself based on his own experience.

In addition to publishing novels, poems, and plays, Mikhail also regularly sends out reader questionnaires, allowing readers to vote for their favorite works over a period of time. After receiving the feedback, the magazine "Modern Man" will also contact the authors of these novels for a brief interview.

Alternatively, they might solicit readers' opinions and feedback on a particular novel; if it is indeed well-written, it might be published in a magazine.

Another aspect is designing some rather clever little columns, and addressing some of the questions readers care about most in a section of the magazine.
Of course, all of these are just occasional additions, and the real focus is definitely on the quality of the work.

Although these small design touches only appear occasionally, each time they do, they often lead to a considerable increase in the magazine's subscribers.

Even though these designs still drew a lot of criticism and attacks from their peers, a closer look at the recent state of the St. Petersburg magazine industry reveals that these tactics have gradually and frequently appeared in various magazines in St. Petersburg.

In short, today, not to mention ordinary readers, even competitors like Krajewsky are closely watching the release of "The Modern Man" every month. Well, it has to be thoroughly criticized!
For the young Tolstoy, his most pressing concern lately was undoubtedly with the author Mikhail.

For some reason, although most people in his circle disdained almost all of the author's works, he was repeatedly moved by the plots and characters in the novels, to the point that he became more and more concerned with things that he seemed to have long forgotten, and increasingly felt the boredom and emptiness in himself and many people around him.

This emotion undoubtedly reached a temporary peak after reading the article titled "The Superfluous Man".

However, this writer was merely stating a phenomenon without offering any more specific attitudes or solutions.

Fortunately, through interviews with Mikhail in magazines and the things Mikhail said, the young Tolstoy had already gained a general understanding of what kind of person the writer was and what kind of attitude he had towards life.

For example, in the interview he said, "Apart from sleeping and eating, I spend almost all my time studying and writing."

This statement alone shows just how serious and diligent he is! He probably spends more than ten hours a day working.

As for his attitude towards life, although the young Tolstoy had already seen several inspiring words in the first two issues of the magazine, the writer seemed to possess inexhaustible talent and inspiration. Every word he spoke was not a repetition of the past, but rather something that felt fresh and new each time, and one could truly feel the spiritual power that the author wanted to convey to others.

The same applies to this issue.
"There is only one kind of heroism in the world: to love life even after recognizing its true nature."

Although there is no more detailed explanation, this statement, like his previous ones, may evoke different feelings in everyone who reads it, and this kind of spiritual encouragement may be transformed into spiritual power, prompting people to do something.

At least for the young Tolstoy, after seeing this sentence, he was stunned for a while, and then he couldn't wait to write it down. All of these things together seemed to be gradually changing the hot-tempered nobleman's attitude towards many things. Perhaps when the hidden emotions in his heart were truly awakened, he would officially begin his own journey.

But before that, let me see how much of his novel has been serialized!
Regarding the small activities in the magazine "Modern Man," especially the section on reader letters, this proud young nobleman participated enthusiastically despite being far away in Moscow. For example, after the last issue of the magazine was released, he quickly sent a letter as a reader.

Out of a sense of pride, he did not make himself sound too enthusiastic in the letter, but instead used a restrained tone to state what he would do if Mikhail did not do something, and he was sure he would do it.

Perhaps the other party read it, or perhaps they didn't read it at all, but in any case, he would definitely feel somewhat unhappy if he didn't write such a letter.

If it gets piling up for too long, he might actually make a trip to St. Petersburg to visit the other party.

Fortunately, this issue does have a lot of long novels. Once the boy realized this, he looked radiant and nodded repeatedly while also quickly reading the contents of this issue.

Even though it was a serialized story, and he could only read it once a month, when the young Tolstoy saw the latest content, the previous content would immediately come to mind.

After the steward's daughter eloped with that annoying young duke, their relationship became increasingly strained, and under these circumstances, the seemingly naive but actually indecisive young duke even showed signs of falling in love with someone else.

As for the granddaughter of the old man who suddenly died, she has only just appeared, and her story has not yet unfolded.

When reading this novel, the young Tolstoy was completely absorbed in the reading, so he couldn't help but frown after reading only a portion of this particular chapter. In this chapter, the duke's son was arranged to meet a young woman, and the duke hoped to obtain a large dowry from her through this marriage.

After realizing that the girl was a kind and honest person, the overly naive young Duke Alyosha impulsively told the girl named Katya about his affair with Natasha.

The young woman seemed to be a very nice person. Although she also had some affection for the young duke, she immediately expressed her intention to refuse the marriage after hearing about Natasha's situation.

The young duke was deeply moved by this and also wanted to introduce the girl to Natasha.
“Natasha, my darling! If she saw you, she would admire you and love you! How kind her heart is! It's so easy to be with her! You two came up like sisters, you should love each other. I've been thinking about this.”

Honestly, I want to bring you two together and watch you two from the sidelines. Don't get the wrong idea, Natasha. Let me talk about her. I really want to talk to you about her, talk to her endlessly. You know, you're the one I love most. I love you more than she does... You are my everything..."

Natasha gazed at him silently, a look of both affection and melancholy. His words seemed to both comfort her and cause her pain.

Although young Tolstoy had never experienced love due to his appearance and age, he still felt an inexplicable urge to punch the young duke for his attitude towards relationships. If he could, he would have loved to reach in and give the man a good punch.

Of course, it would be even better if we could reach St. Petersburg and capture the author.

Upon arriving here, for some reason, the story suddenly seemed to take a more convoluted turn. First, the girl named Katya expressed her intention to refuse the engagement. Then, the duke, who had been portrayed as hypocritical and cold-hearted, suddenly appeared and, after saying a lot of nice things to "me," Natasha, and the young duke, announced on the spot:

"The purpose of my coming here is to fulfill my obligation to you—I solemnly and with my utmost respect ask you to grant my son's happiness and request that you marry him."

In short, in this long speech, the Duke expressed his regret for the lawsuit between the two families, believing that he had listened to gossip and caused this result. On the other hand, he praised Natasha's virtues and wanted to become friends with such a noble woman as Natasha.

Undoubtedly, this is another major reversal. The previous text has already explained the Duke's character to some extent. It is clear that he is not such an open-minded person, so why would he say such a thing?
At the same time, the article does indeed point out this: "When he gave this speech, he was very indifferent, with a slight intention to show off his eloquence and pander to the crowd, and he even had a certain nonchalant attitude when he said some things."

Is there some special purpose, or is it out of some special psychology?

Out of self-awareness, the young Tolstoy was convinced that this would be a character who would astound all readers, but how exactly to portray him...
Gone!

The novel then shifts to another storyline, where the poor little girl reappears before "me" and tries to take away her grandfather's belongings. However, during the conversation, the little girl clearly states that her grandfather doesn't like her, and as time passes, she suddenly cries out in alarm:
"Yes, yes, I snuck here! Let me go! She'll beat me up!" she cried, clearly letting it slip. She struggled to break free from my grasp as she spoke.

Out of some kind of fear, the little girl got into the carriage that "I" had called, and on the way, "I" kept checking on her condition:
"Okay, I've already said I'd never go to your place, but what are you so afraid of! You must be very unfortunate. Seeing you makes my heart ache..."

“I’m not afraid of anyone,” she replied with a hint of resentment in her voice.

"Didn't you just say, 'She'll beat me up!'"

"Let her hit me!" she replied, her eyes gleaming. "Let her hit me! Let her hit me!" she repeated painfully, her upper lip twitching with a hint of disdain, and she began to tremble.

The little girl's behavior undoubtedly foreshadowed something, so "I" secretly followed her and then witnessed her being abused by a mean landlord.

Where are her parents? What exactly is this landlord trying to do?
With these questions in mind, the young Tolstoy hurriedly turned to the next page, only to find a few lines of text and the last line, which he now loathed: "To be continued."

Young Tolstoy: "."

This author really needs to be controlled!

As the saying goes, anger arises from the heart and evil is born from the gall; with a strong sense of dissatisfaction, the young Tolstoy wrote a rather agitated letter.
However, for Mikhail, he is now a seasoned serial writer. He now asks the magazine editors to review the letters sent by readers before he reads the filtered content.

There's no way around it; there are just too many hot-tempered guys in Russia. Seeing too many of them is definitely not good for Mikhail's mental and physical health.

For this reason, Mikhail seems to have missed the opportunity to meet the young Tolstoy. One wonders if, years later, when the two finally met, Tolstoy would bring up this incident.
So, back to Mikhail, as is customary, he wasn't keen on going out in the first couple of days after the magazine's release. On this ordinary day, as Mikhail was at home continuing to study the geography books of the time, his maid suddenly knocked on his door.

Upon learning that guests had arrived, Mikhail temporarily put down what he was doing and headed to the living room.

As soon as Mikhail stepped out of the room, the first person he saw was Belinsky. Before he could even look at the other, less familiar guest, the other man had already approached him with great enthusiasm. Although Mikhail was slightly bewildered, he instinctively reached out his hand.

Without hesitation, the other person grabbed Mikhail's hand, and after a few seconds of pause, introduced himself:
“I have heard so many incredible stories about you lately, Mr. Mikhail Romanovich. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

I am Alexander Ivanovich Herzen.

(End of this chapter)