I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 86 "The Insulted and the Hurt"

If nothing unexpected happens, Mikhail will soon be living in a small villa. Although Mikhail had given some of the money he earned from publishing his collection to the impoverished Belinsky, Belinsky had already devoted himself entirely to his work.

In his own words, "I never thought I'd have a day when my luck would turn around! Now I feel energetic again, and my mind is clear. Before, my head felt like it was full of straw."

To realize his personal ambitions and justify his salary, Belinsky didn't need Mikhail or Nekrasov, the shareholders, to urge him on at all. He worked himself to the bone, keeping himself extremely busy. Fortunately, the money he received eventually ended up in his wife's hands. While it might not be enough to live in a mansion, it would certainly free Belinsky from his current life of hard labor.

As for Nekrasov
Before he left, Mikhail jokingly asked, "Nikolai, where are you moving to next? Tell me, I'll come visit you when I have time."

It was a very simple question, but Nekrasov's eyes darted around after hearing it, and he didn't even dare to meet Mikhail's gaze. After hurrying to the door, he said somewhat vaguely, "It's not certain yet. I'll let you know when it's confirmed."

Watching Nekrasov's hurried departure, and reflecting on his recent antics and reactions at parties, Mikhail could only say, "Old Pa, you really are a man."
Although Panayev quickly became indifferent to his wife after their marriage due to his playboy nature, he was still quite open-minded in acquiescing to his wife's relationship with Nekrasov.

Nekrasov, on the other hand, was rather petty in the relationship, often getting angry out of jealousy. In short, I wish him happiness.

This is truly the Russian version of "the three of us living a good life is better than anything else."
After seeing Nekrasov off, Mikhail sat down at his desk again and checked the novel he had almost finished.

In this day and age, due to issues such as binding and advertising costs, long novels are mostly published serially in magazines. Only after the serialization is completed and the word-of-mouth among readers is it possible to consider binding them into books and selling them for a profit.

This serialized format is particularly popular in Britain and France today. Dickens, for example, gradually became a national writer who even Queen Victoria admired through newspaper serializations.

At this point in time, Dickens is in his prime, but he has not yet written his best work. If Mikhail has time to travel abroad in the future, he will most likely be able to meet this great writer in person.

Returning to Russia, since most novels nowadays are serialized, in a sense, to attract readers, the work must be written to be sufficiently intricate and engaging. At the same time, if one wants to earn more money, lengthening the story is a good option.

Dostoevsky's works do indeed contain this intention to some extent. Due to his gambling and advance payments of royalties, Dostoevsky's royalties were never enough before he truly quit gambling and his last wife helped him manage his finances. This, to some extent, made some of his works seem rambling and verbose.

This refers to earning money through writing articles about hydrology.
Of course, aside from this reason, Dostoevsky's style is indeed like this. Even in his later works, such as *The Brothers Karamazov*, when he was financially well-off, there are still large sections of psychological description and analysis. While seemingly tedious, when these elements come together, they create a powerful impact on the reader's mind. At the same time, Russian novels also have a penchant for argumentation, evident in the works of many Russian writers. Simply put, censorship made it difficult to publish many books that disseminated ideas, culture, philosophy, and revolution, so writers used novels to spread their ideologies.

In short, it is about establishing a government openly and legitimately through novels.
As for novels, as mentioned before, it is indeed difficult to choose. Mikhail is too young to write a work as grand as "War and Peace," and given his background, it is not convincing enough for him to depict the highest echelons of high society.

After all, the highest-ranking person he had ever met was a general with a unique way of thinking.

Dostoevsky's later works are also not good, as the span is too large. And it must be said that the style of those works was indeed ahead of its time, but that's why they only received the praise they deserved in their later years.

In this situation, if we want to continue the previous theme without making too big a leap, then "The Insulted and Hurt" is a suitable choice. Of course, some parts of the content do need to be slightly modified.

After checking it again and finding no major problems, Mikhail didn't waste any more time and immediately packed up the manuscript and sent it out.

A few days later, the pre-order work for "The Modern Man," which was taken over by Mikhail and his team, officially began. However, before Mikhail could receive the specific data, Krajevsky, who was also paying attention to the matter and had asked many people to help him find out the information, learned about the data first.

In general, after Krajewsky learned about the situation with "The Contemporary," he spent his days spreading rumors that the publisher was unable to repay its debts, speaking ill of the magazine to many people, and paying extra attention to the quality of the next issue. He spent a lot of money to acquire manuscripts from several renowned writers and planned to publish them all in the next issue.

Before officially entering the ring, Krajewsky naturally hoped his other actions would be effective, but upon hearing the number of pre-orders, he couldn't help but shout it out:
"An annual subscription fee of seventeen rubles, and now we have fifteen hundred subscribers?! What are these subscribers thinking? Why are they so optimistic about a new magazine? Aren't they afraid of wasting their money?!"

It was probably because of the reputation of Vesalion, his friends, and the young man.
After thinking about the discussions he had heard on the streets recently, Nikotin, the editor responsible for informing Krajewsky about this matter, had a general idea in mind.

To be honest, after their previous encounters, he had a feeling that the young man was not as easily fooled as Belinsky. But to be honest, he never expected that the other party could make so many big moves in such a short period of time, and now he was almost standing on Mr. Krajevsky's head.

After all, what publisher is that young?
Moreover, judging from the current data, it seems that the other side is really close to success.
Looking at the still angry Krajewsky, Nikotin suddenly remembered some rumors he had heard recently, that the magazine "The Contemporary" seemed to be planning to increase the authors' fees and treatment.

It seems that Krajewsky's days of receiving manuscripts for free are probably over.
(End of this chapter)