The Shadow of Great Britain

The early morning fog was thick and cold, and inside the rented carriage, Eldred yawned three times in a row.

Needless to say, this second-class clerk from the Navy Department Hydrographic Office stayed up fighting until two in the morning last night.

However, although it was two o’clock when Arthur went to bed as well, he was surprisingly energetic. Eldred could barely keep his eyes open, yet Arthur still had the energy to browse through several manuscripts he brought from the editorial office.

Perhaps he couldn’t withstand it any longer, Eldred habitually took out a pipe and held it in his mouth, but after rummaging through his pockets for a while, he found that he hadn’t brought any matches.

He raised half an eyelid and tapped Arthur’s boot with his toe.

But this lazy fellow didn’t want to say anything; he merely pursed his lips and got the box of matches he wanted from Arthur.

He lit the pipe and took a deep drag, squinting as the smoke slowly spread in the narrow carriage, mixing with the leather scent, having some refreshing effect.

”What are you looking at so early?” Eldred leaned against the carriage wall: ”You got home later than me last night, could it be a love letter?”

Arthur replied dismissively: ”Manuscripts.”

”Manuscripts?”

”That’s right, manuscripts for ’Spark’.”

Eldred, initially half-awake, rolled his eyes fully: ”What’s so interesting about manuscripts for ’Spark’? If ’John Bull’ doesn’t like the articles, we put them in ’Spark’; that’s always been our attitude, hasn’t it?”

”That’s what we’ve always said, but that article from ’John Bull’ gave me some inspiration.” Arthur reviewed the manuscript without looking up: ”After Albert left the editorial office yesterday, I had them bring out all the reader correspondence for ’Spark’ recently, and found a few authors with more attention than Charles.”

”More attention than Charles, isn’t that normal?” Eldred replied disdainfully: ”Even the reader mail I get surpasses that of Charles the baldy.”

”Baldy?” Arthur lowered the manuscript: ”I’m not talking about Charles Darwin, but Charles Dickens.”

Upon hearing this, Eldred coughed repeatedly, smoke spewing from his mouth and nostrils, clearly choked: ”What did you say?”

Arthur looked up, his tone flat: ”I said, there are several authors on ’Spark’ whose correspondence exceeds that of Dickens.”

”Nonsense!” Eldred reacted instinctively: ”You must have counted wrong.”

Although Eldred felt that purely in writing, he could rival Dickens, Dickens admittedly had the advantage in subject matter. Plus, being the marquee figure in London’s major theaters nowadays, it was understandable his popularity was higher.

However, while he could accept Dickens surpassing him, it didn’t mean he could accept others surpassing him, especially if those authors were regulars on ’Spark.’

Suddenly wide awake, Eldred exclaimed: ”Dickens’ fan mail can pile up into a small mountain; I wouldn’t dare say I can definitely overshadow him. ’Spark’? Arthur, don’t joke.”

”Believe it or not.” Arthur restacked the manuscripts on his lap: ”Numbers are there; they won’t change just because you curse a bit. Also, I must admit that Mr. Edward Lloyd, editor of ’Spark,’ is indeed a rare talent.”

”Humph! Talent? That book thief?” Eldred didn’t think highly of Lloyd: ”Edward what’s-his-name? That guy was nicknamed ’One Penny Plagiarism King’ on Fleet Street; I heard he wet himself when you had people rush into his printing workshop.”

Arthur clearly didn’t mind this trivial matter, he corrected: ”Eldred, please maintain basic respect for our editor. Although Lloyd did engage in some unseemly practices to make money, like pirating and plagiarizing ’John Bull’ works, ever since joining Imperial Publishing, he’s thoroughly reformed.”

As Arthur said, Edward Lloyd, like many publishers in London, made his mark through piracy.

Or more precisely, his first fortune came from plagiarizing Dickens’ works. Lloyd entered publishing in 1832, conveniently avoiding Sir Arthur Hastings’ highly effective anti-piracy campaign, and published pirated versions such as ’Penny Pickwick,’ ’Oliver Twist,’ and ’Nicholas Nickleby,’ all stolen from Dickens.

More outrageously, Lloyd’s ’Penny Pickwick’ sold fifty thousand copies, exceeding the original ’Pickwick Club’ tenfold, mainly because ’Penny Pickwick’ was priced at only a twelfth of the original version.

When ’John Bull’ represented Dickens in suing Lloyd, the judge ruled that ’John Bull’s lawsuit couldn’t prove Lloyd’s plagiarism, hence Dickens and ’John Bull’ lost.

Lloyd was overjoyed with the result, hosting a three-day feast in his Fleet Street workshop, boasting to everyone: ”Even the judge says I didn’t plagiarize! After all, my circulation exceeds Dickens’ original!”

He even bragged to his printing apprentices that what he feared least in life was lawsuits with ’John Bull.’

But his delight didn’t last long.

Because less than half a year after that lawsuit ended, Sir Arthur Hastings finished his icy adventure in Russia and returned to London.