The Shadow of Great Britain

The Green Restaurant is located at the corner of Strand Street, not too far from Fleet Street.

This restaurant is different from the high-end ones frequented by dukes and nobility; its outer wall is simply painted with a coat of dark green paint, and a few menus curled up by the wind are pasted on the windows, which counts as decoration.

The windows of the restaurant are covered with a thin layer of fog, and standing on the street looking inside, you can only see the fuzzy silhouettes of the guests.

As soon as you push the door, the rich smell of beef and onions fills the air, mixed with the warm aroma of beer and hot soup.

Eld, familiar as ever, led the group through the narrow corridor and waved to the owner: ”The usual place, the table by the window!”

The owner recognized him and immediately smiled, pointing to the empty table by the window: ”Mr. Carter! You’re in for a treat today; today’s beef ribs just arrived at ten o’clock.”

As the group settled down, not even waiting for the tea to be served, Albert steered the conversation towards the publishing industry: ”Mr. Carter, so, for a book like ’Lancaster’s Blood,’ would selling three thousand copies be considered a success?”

”Three thousand copies? It depends.” Eld lit his pipe: ”Let me give you an example. For those authors often praised by ’Blackwood’s,’ three thousand copies is indeed considered a big sale. But if it’s by those sitting here having a meal today, three thousand copies would only be slightly above the passing line.”

This leader in British historical novels named them one by one: ”Look, Mr. Dickens’ ’Oliver Twist’ sold five thousand copies as soon as it was released, and after it was adapted into a script and performed last year, its total sales have nearly reached ten thousand copies. Mr. Disraeli’s ’Young Duke,’ although it had poor initial sales, has accumulated over four or five thousand copies over the years. As for Arthur’s ’Hastings Case Files,’ well, it was already popular among readers during the serialization, but because the book is very long, it was divided into three parts upon publication. Yet, any of these parts would have sales exceeding four thousand copies, making it an absolute bestseller.”

Tennyson heard this, and couldn’t help but feel a bit inferior: ”Alas...”

Eld saw Tennyson’s look and couldn’t help but comfort him: ”Alfred, you don’t need to feel that way. You only suffer in the choice of subject matter, not in your ability. After all, the publishing business is about luck. If the subject is right, even if the writing is poor, it can still sell. If the subject is wrong, even writing a masterpiece won’t prevent it from being a slow seller.”

Dickens echoed: ”Exactly. Everything has its pros and cons. In terms of literary status, how can we novelists compare to poets? Alfred, you must understand, ever since you published ’In Memoriam,’ nearly all literary magazines mention your name with praise. And what about us? Surely you’ve seen the various criticisms of fashionable novels in literary magazines.”

Albert, upon hearing this, couldn’t help but ask curiously: ”What are they criticizing?”

Disraeli chuckled disdainfully: ”It’s really nothing much, mostly the same old clichés, saying fashionable novels are vulgar and indecent, promoting bad social atmosphere.”

”Not entirely clichés,” Arthur stirred his teacup with a spoon: ”Recently, I saw ’John Bull’ coin a new term, called ’Modern Servantgalism.’ The only good thing is that ’John Bull’ doesn’t seem to be targeting us specifically.”

”Modern Servantgalism?” Albert, as if discovering a new continent, was really enjoying this kind of chat; it was far more interesting than court socializing: ”What is Modern Servantgalism?”

”Well... how should I put it?”

Arthur structured his language logically: ”According to ’John Bull,’ this is a social phenomenon primarily appearing among the maidservant community in London. The specific manifestations include vanity, pretentiousness, arrogance, and ignorance. Of course, this phenomenon does not only occur among maids nor is it confined to gender. Whether it’s household maids, shop workers, or seamstress workers, or various small business owners, you can see this phenomenon. The common traits of these groups are vanity, attention to attire, and high self-esteem, and they are the main consumer group for various cheap serialized publications.

’John Bull’ feels that much of the content in these publications, including household tips, celebrity maxims, and lady columns, although seeming dull and harmless and even having a certain educational meaning, often add a lot of distorted life views, extremely exaggerated gorgeous costumes, and luxurious scenes to serialized novels to boost sales. These stories always arrange for many unrealistic episodes, letting the protagonists achieve illogical great victories and excess rewards. Poor and virtuous girls always marry wealthy and prestigious husbands, and poor clerks or wandering painters always transform into wealthy nobles by the end of the story...”

Albert realized this upon hearing it, even recalling a few similar novels: ”Jane Austen’s ’Pride and Prejudice’? No, her ’Mansfield Park’ might be closer.”

Arthur shrugged with a smile: ”That’s right, you guessed it, Jane Austen was harshly criticized by that article in ’John Bull.’ That’s why I said this attack shouldn’t be directed at us. Because whenever Fleet Street wants to criticize ’John Bull,’ it usually uses another set of phrases.”