The Shadow of Great Britain

Of course, Arthur need not be too distressed over missing the surge of travelogs.

Because the current London publishing market has more than just travelogues trending.

Since Sir Walter Scott made a spectacular debut in Britain, historical themes have always been bestsellers in the London publishing market.

According to recent reports from the London Publishing Industry Association, the market for historical themes is even experiencing a situation where demand exceeds supply.

However, the unmet demand for historical themes doesn’t mean everyone can profit from it. Since the unfortunate passing of Sir Walter Scott, there have been few decent historical works published in Britain over the past few years. Still, whenever a well-chosen and well-written work appears, its sales cannot be less than a thousand copies.

In this regard, the person who has reaped the most from the publishing benefits is Eld Carter, the heir to Walter Scott’s legacy.

Since Mr. Carter made a sensational debut in Britain with his first work, ”Robinson Crusoe,” he has published several historical novels while busy with underground literary endeavors.

A year after completing his voyage around the world and returning to London, Eld released his heavyweight masterpiece ”Blenheim’s Horn.”

This military historical novel, set against the backdrop of the Battle of Blenheim during the Spanish War of Succession in 1704, narrates the story of young Yorkshire farmer Thomas Harrow being drafted and accompanying John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, on an expedition to the Rhine River.

Priced at 1 pound and 10 shillings, this novel in three volumes sold out its initial print run of 1,000 copies within three months. Due to its remarkable sales, 2,000 more copies had to be reprinted by the end of the year.

Magazines such as ”Athena” and ”London Review” even believed for a time that the publication of ”Blenheim’s Horn” held considerable symbolic significance. After the book’s release, the British literary world dared not challenge Eld Carter’s status as Walter Scott’s successor.

After a year of silence, the esteemed Mr. Eld Carter, following friendly consultations with his close friend Mr. Alexander Dumas in Paris, ceremoniously launched his ”epic masterpiece that took eight years to conceive,” ”Lancaster’s Blood,” last week.

The story spans half a century, starting from the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and continuing until the passage of the Act of Supremacy in 1534, marking Britain’s formal completion of the religious reform.

The protagonist of the story is a young scribe with concealed lineage—John Morton.

As a forgotten bastard of the Lancastrian family, he is forced to lay low in the shadow of the Tudor Dynasty. Through complex relationships with a merciful converted priest, a ruthless court secretary, and a Catholic noblewoman, Morton ultimately achieves the resurgence of the Lancastrian family’s illegitimacy in the Tudor Dynasty.

Although the book was launched less than a week ago, it has already sparked extensive discussion in London’s literary review community. Judging by the current sales fever in major bookstores in London, Imperial Publishing only has one issue to consider: when to print more copies.

Although Arthur had some criticisms regarding Eld’s choice of protagonists, such as a Yorkshire farmer and an illegitimate child, given the commercial success of these two books, he did not bother to argue with Eld. Most importantly, he couldn’t determine whether these protagonist choices were Eld’s own ideas or suggestions from Great Dumas.

Moreover, according to Arthur’s conceptualization, Imperial Publishing must maintain a comprehensive and inclusive stance in topic selection.

To put it straight, in every genre, or at least in each popular genre, there must be at least one specialized author in reserve.

In other words, if Eld can’t secure his hold on the popular historical genre, it would be quite a tricky situation.

While Tennyson rules poetry, Darwin dominates travelogues, Eld governs history, Dickens conquers London theatre, and Disraeli leverages political themes for self-propaganda—what, then, is Sir Arthur Hastings himself doing?

As chairman of the board of Imperial Publishing Company, Sir Arthur decided to save the day when disaster looms, hold up the crumbling mansion!

He resolutely advanced toward the domain that almost all authors in Imperial Publishing found unreachable.

Surprisingly to many, another major trend in the current London publishing market turned out to be scientific monographs.

Charles Babbage’s ”Economy of Manufacturing,” Dr. Radner’s ”Steam Engine,” McCallum’s ”Commercial Dictionary,” Bain’s ”History of Cotton Manufacturing”—these scientifically oriented titles that make most people’s head ache, and high-priced works, have surprisingly achieved unexpected commercial success in the London publishing market.

Even Dr. James Clark’s medical monograph ”On Consumption” garnered widespread acceptance amid Britain’s cholera epidemic. Unlike most esoteric medical texts, ”On Consumption” is relatively easy to understand, yet it is hard to explain why almost every influential newspaper and literary journal earnestly recommends this book to the public.

Nonetheless, not understanding doesn’t mean you can’t follow the trend.

With Sir Arthur’s expertise in natural philosophy, writing academic papers might be demanding, but drafting a few science popularization books based on current scientific advances poses no major issues for him.