I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 145 Winter is a season of great concealment
As the new year began, while Mikhail and his colleagues were focused on preparing the content for the new issue of the magazine, the editorial office of Le Soir in Paris was also bustling with activity.

However, Modern Man is a relatively pure literary magazine, while Century Newspaper is entirely aimed at the general public, and its core business philosophy is commercial operation, with everything done in order to sell more copies of the newspaper.

So, on the one hand, this newspaper published serialized novels with strong storylines to attract readers, and on the other hand, it frequently reported on social and crime news. In order to attract readers, they often used sensational headlines to stir up public emotions.

Examples include: "Glass Bloodbath: Killer Attacks Wealthy Family with Axe at Night!" and "Parisian Socialite Poisons Newlywed, Faints Three Times in Court!"

Another tactic is to extensively report on celebrity scandals, inciting various conflicts to stir up readers' emotions, and so on.

With its rich content and low prices, Le Soir was undoubtedly one of the highest-circulation newspapers in Paris during this period, and it also had a great influence in the public sphere.

Newspapers like The Century have pioneered a system that relies on advertising rather than subscription fees to generate profits.

The content of the advertisements is extremely diverse, but there is basically only one principle: you can publish an advertisement as long as you pay.

Under this business philosophy, the style of "The Century" was indeed not high, and it often became the target of criticism from some mainstream magazines and newspapers.

However, according to Jiladan, the editor of Al-Ahram, having many subscribers and high income was enough; as for anything else, it was simply insignificant in the face of money.

For this reason, Jiladan doesn't usually put much effort into reading, nor does he think about verifying the authenticity of certain news or the deeper meaning hidden within them. For him, coming up with sensational headlines and writing articles that stir up readers' emotions is the real business.

However, recently, in order to catch up with a hot news story, Giradan actually took the time to read a novel written in French by a Russian author. In the past, he would have thought he was crazy to do this, but after reading it, Giradan was quite surprised to find that the novel seemed to be really good.

Of course, it's not bad, but that doesn't stop Giradan from fabricating a fake news story based on this novel, "A Fake Necklace Cost a Beautiful Young Woman Ten Years," and then jumping back and forth in the debate about this novel, saying things like "Russian writers have completely surpassed French writers!" and then hurriedly issuing a statement that this novel is really bad and that Russian writers' works are as inferior as the British.

Reading is reading, and work is work. This behavior may seem like a battle between the left and right brains, but in reality, it's just a way to attract readers with different viewpoints.

It must be said that the recent discussions about this novel and the Russian author have been quite heated. In addition to this French novel, even his translated Russian novels have attracted the praise of many French literary critics.

Even among the French public, the novel resonated with many, who felt it served as a stark reminder of the growing extravagance in Paris. Meanwhile, the protagonist's unwavering commitment to repaying his debts was widely praised.

As for the translated Russian novels, their quality is frankly unbelievably high; they're almost unbelievable things that Russian authors could have written.

As a result, it is said that the magazines that published the Russian writer's novels have seen a significant increase in sales in recent issues. At the same time, other magazines and newspapers in Paris have also taken this opportunity to publish many eye-catching articles and news, and have certainly reaped considerable benefits.

But since this matter has been brewing for quite some time, the unexpected storm is now gradually subsiding. After all, he is a foreign writer, and the fact that he has sparked such a long discussion among the Parisian literary world and the people of Paris is enough to make him feel honored.

As for anything more, does he really expect his article to cause a huge uproar in Paris and attract everyone's attention? That's just wishful thinking.

No foreign writer has ever achieved such success in Paris, let alone in Russia, a country known for its barbarity and crudeness.

Regardless, Giradan did write quite a few articles about this incident. In fact, one of his articles caused a huge uproar in the literary world and among the general public during this controversy. To put it simply, the article was titled: "Dumas Says He Would Read These Novels on His Knees!"

For the cultural circles and the public in Paris, the name Alexandre Dumas is certainly not unfamiliar, especially since he just finished serializing "The Three Musketeers" last year and is still serializing "The Count of Monte Cristo" this year. These two novels have brought him enormous wealth and also brought his fame to another peak.

How could such a writer have such an attitude towards these few novels?

The reason he dared to write such an article was not only because Girardan had a good relationship with Dumas, but also because he had actually heard Dumas speak highly of the Russian writer in a conversation.

In short, this article is half true and half false. Sometimes, that's how you have to do news. If it's too fake, no one will read it. If it's too true, people won't be interested. So you have to combine the two.

What is truly surprising is that when someone took this article to Alexandre Dumas, he did not seem to completely deny the claim, but rather complained with dissatisfaction that the Parisian newspapers always liked to exaggerate the facts.

In short, things have developed to this point, and Giradan feels it's time to stop. And if nothing unexpected happens, we probably won't see this Russian writer's name for a long time, or even ever again.

In order to make a name for himself in the Parisian literary scene, he must have done his best and produced his finest works. Under these circumstances, this writer will probably need to take a long time to reflect, and the storm he has stirred up seems to be nothing to Paris, which is constantly producing all kinds of literature.

So rather than continuing to pay attention to this matter, Giradan was more concerned about which great writer Le Château should get a suitable novel to serialize next. The best choice was undoubtedly Alexandre Dumas, who had once again proven his absolute strength in popular fiction last year with The Three Musketeers.

But this great writer was a real headache. For example, novels serialized in Parisian newspapers are now charged per line, so when he was serializing The Three Musketeers in Les Centenaries, he introduced many characters who spoke very succinctly. No matter what they said, they would often use only a single syllable, and the dialogue was often surprisingly long.

This led to the newspaper "Le Soir" having to introduce a rule that if a line of text did not exceed half a line, it would not be counted at all. As a result, Dumas began to eliminate characters that he had only introduced for the purpose of dialogue.

Right now, Alexandre Dumas is serializing *The Count of Monte Cristo* in another newspaper. As for Balzac, even though he's extremely strapped for cash and would love to buy up all the serialized novels, the lengthy descriptions of locations at the beginning of his novels don't seem to immediately grab the reader's attention. So, they still need to consider other candidates.
Of course, even if he racked his brains, this editor of The Century would probably never connect certain things.

While the fervor surrounding Mikhail's novels in Paris was waning, it was, in a sense, just beginning in Russia. This was naturally due to the long distance and the inability to receive much real-time news promptly. Consequently, many people in St. Petersburg had only a vague understanding of how Parisians actually viewed Mikhail's French-language novels.

I know it's not simple, but I can't really say exactly how impressive it is.

But once the reviews and other materials from Parisian newspapers and literary journals arrived, Turgenev immediately used these references to prove his boasts and, incidentally, began to settle scores with some stubborn individuals. Meanwhile, since the capitalist giants from old Paris were quite adept at sensationalism, some of the news articles and reviews really left some Russians bewildered.

What? Even great French writers have to kneel to read? Doesn't that hurt your knees?
Furthermore, renowned critics believe that this French novel is better than the works of at least 70% to 80% of French writers.

This reveals that the overall level of Russian literature is rising rapidly, and it is estimated that many writers are at a level no less than that of this young Russian writer.

Some Russian writers who saw this last speculation were left with the question: "?"

Are you blind? If your skill level isn't good enough, are you going to make up for it for us?!
And is it true that his French novels are actually better than those of many French writers?

And what about those short stories that received a lot of praise in China? They're just as good abroad, aren't they?

To be fair, even with this written evidence, for some reason, many people still feel it's all fake after reading it, because the whole thing is just too fantastical.
Furthermore, prior to this, although Mikhail's short stories were all very popular and of undeniable quality, there were certainly those who were unwilling to praise them. Since the Russian literary world seemed unable to find a work that could overshadow these stories, it was much easier to shift the focus and criticize Mikhail by invoking the reputation of the French, and this approach was sure to garner a lot of support.

In the realm of literature, at this point in time, who dares to say that Russian writers can compete with French writers?
This tactic used to be very effective and difficult to refute, but after what happened, it probably won't work anymore.
Another point worth mentioning is that although Turgenev was willing to exaggerate Mikhail's brilliance, he certainly knew that he had only slightly embellished some things.

But now, looking at these comments from the Parisians themselves...
Am I still too reserved?!

But in any case, this is definitely a good thing, and in a sense, it may also be a good thing for the Russian literary world. As a result, for a time, there were no negative voices in the Russian cultural circles. Even Krajevsky, the owner of the rival magazine "The Contemporary," who was at odds with the magazine, had to admit in public that the young man was quite capable.

Of course, this wasn't a good thing for Mikhail. After all, during the time when these things from Paris were spreading in St. Petersburg, Mikhail, who had finally managed to relax for a while, found himself suddenly busy again.

With invitations coming from one place and another, Mikhail could only say to decline them if possible.

There are some advantages, though. With the arrival of the new year, the pre-orders for "Modern Man" for this year have officially begun.

Previously, in an eagerness to gain traction, Modern People magazine had engaged in a price war, offering a slightly lower annual subscription fee than Chronicle of the Motherland. This year, after much discussion, the price was finally brought down to the same level as Chronicle of the Motherland.

Despite the price increase, perhaps thanks to the news coverage, the number of subscribers to "Modern People" magazine actually increased rather than decreased, easily surpassing the 3,000 mark, and is still far from reaching its limit.

However, while the number of subscribers steadily increased, letters from subscribers also poured into the offices of "Modern Man" like a heavy snowfall. Some were curious and wanted to ask Mikhail himself for his thoughts on the news, while others simply asked when the next issue of the magazine would arrive.

Of course, most people will still convey their support and greetings to Mikhail.

Although Mikhail still hadn't seen it, he felt that this must be the case, and thinking about it that way, he felt quite moved.
However, since this is the first issue of the new year, Mikhail's plan is indeed to add a short story to fill the space in addition to the regular serialization of the novel.

But before that, now that they had finally made it to winter, a season with better concealment, Mikhail was finally going to meet the so-called Petrashevsky Group with Demy and the young Dostoevsky.

Because he had been busy with other matters, Mikhail had essentially put off this matter for a while. So, after informing Demi and the others, Mikhail quickly left his house on a snowy day when there were few people around and even the secret police were probably too lazy to move, and headed towards a certain place.
(End of this chapter)