Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 360: Changes in "The Englishman"

Since entering December, the streets of London have been filled with fog almost every day, and there is a little rain occasionally.

In the editorial office of "The Brit" on Fleet Street, Tennyson sat in front of an empty desk, holding a cup of hot black tea in his hand.

After taking a sip of black tea, chewing a piece of freshly baked bread and onion rings, and following the rising flames in the fireplace behind him, he finally felt his stiff fingers stretch a lot.

These days, because Dumas, another editor-in-chief of "The Brit", followed Arthur to Liverpool to investigate a case, Tennyson was the only one in the editor-in-chief's office with three desks every day.

Although the absence of the French fat man who liked to tell jokes could make his ears quieter, it also made Tennyson feel a long-lost loneliness.

As a shy and introverted young man, Tennyson's social circle is not particularly wide, and since his father passed away, he has not even contacted some relatives often.

Although he dropped out of Cambridge and immediately entered the University of London to major in classical literature under Arthur's recommendation, he did not have much communication with his classmates except for daily classes.

He preferred to deal with old friends rather than make new friends. After all, human energy is limited, and in a limited life, he hopes to carefully select and manage a few sincere friendships.

Thinking of this, Tennyson couldn't help but take out a few letters from the drawer of his desk.

The one from the Duchy of Weimar in Germany was signed by William Thackeray.

Although this good friend he met in Cambridge met Mr. Goethe through a local introduction, Goethe's literary and artistic atmosphere obviously failed to save Thackeray from the manic mood defeated by "A Farewell to Cambridge".

On the contrary, Thackeray suffered a new round of blows after seeing the strong classical literary atmosphere in Goethe. He began to doubt whether he had the ability to embark on the path of literature, and began to seriously consider the business route suggested by his mother.

However, although Thackeray complained almost all over the letter, he did not forget to send some souvenirs to Tennyson at the last moment.

Tennyson turned his head and looked at the two books wrapped in cowhide at hand.

One was "West-Eastern Poetry" and the other was "Faust", both of which were works of Goethe, and both were German editions.

Seeing these things, Tennyson couldn't help but sigh with a wry smile.

In fact, it was not only Thackeray who was restless, but he himself was the same.

There were many masters among the contributors of "The Brit". When it was just founded more than a year ago, everyone was still unknown in the British literary world.

But a year later, Dumas, Dickens and Disraeli have been hailed as the three horses of the British fashionable novel world.

Darwin, a cross-border writer, also received applause from the naturalists of the Linnaean Society for his popular science articles.

Arthur became a pioneering figure in detective novels, and now many people in London's literary magazines are clumsily imitating his writing style. However, due to professional reasons, other people's imitations could not reach the level of realism of the real superintendent of Scotland Yard.

After being polished by Alexandre Dumas, Elder's Robin Hood soon attracted the attention of Sir Walter Scott, a leading figure in British historical novels.

Coincidentally, Sir Scott died shortly after commenting on Robin Hood, so his comment on Elder became his last work.

And this kind of luck, like pie in the sky, also caused Elder to cause a heated discussion among historical literature enthusiasts.

After the publication of the novel "St. George's Flag Flies As Usual", which was based on Elder, this guy has gained a lot of devout believers.

At the same time, the historical literature circle also highly praised Elder, and everyone agreed that there was a reason why Mr. Carter could write Robin Hood.

Elder's experience shows that he has a long-standing British historical tradition.

Pious, optimistic, tenacious, brave and unyielding, these are the synonyms of Elder Carter.

Along with the rise of these new forces in the literary world, the popularity and sales of "The Litter" have also soared.

Many people that Tennyson would never have dared to think of before have also begun to choose "The Litter" as one of their choices.

In the past six months alone, he has seen famous European figures such as Heine, Mickiewicz, Thomas Campbell, etc. in the manuscripts handed over by Arthur.

Of course, what shocked Tennyson the most was that Arthur was able to get Shelley's unpublished posthumous work "Prometheus Unbound".

Moreover, this is far from Arthur's limit. There are many strange things in the supplement "The Economist".

For example, the many posthumous works of Prince Czartoryski, the leader of the Polish exiles, Mr. Louis Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon, and David Ricardo, the leading figure in British classical economics.

Compared with these people, Tennyson only felt insignificant.

If we were to list the most unsuccessful authors since the founding of the Libery, he would definitely be the one.

This can be seen from the literary criticism articles published by the two main competitors of the Libery, Blackwood and Monthly Review.

They focused their main output on Dumas, Dickens and others, and when mentioning Tennyson's Lyrics, they usually only commented lightly - whining, crude and boring.

Although several major shareholders of the magazine did not care about Tennyson's mediocre market performance, and even took the initiative to comfort him not to take it too seriously, Tennyson himself could not lie down calmly.

However, the more anxious he was, the more rubbish he wrote, so rubbish that even he himself couldn't read it.

Looking at the mountain-like collection of poems by Wordsworth, Southey and Coleridge, Tennyson was so ashamed that he wished he could bury himself in the ground with scraps.

"well……"

Tennyson couldn't help but shook his head while holding Thackeray's letter and said: "William, it's not just you who want to give up, even I want to give up on the path of writing poetry."

The door to the room was suddenly pushed open gently, and a blond lady wearing a black apron came in carrying a tray with a teapot, and asked in half-baked English: "Mr. Tennyson, would you like some hot water?"

Hearing this, Tennyson smiled shyly and nodded: "Excuse me, Miss Paulina."

While adding water to Tennyson's teapot, Polina said uneasily: "Sir, do you know about the recent shooting in Liverpool? It was the one that assassinated Mr. Hastings."

Tennyson put down the letter in his hand, raised his head and asked, "Of course I know. As soon as I found out what happened, I wrote a letter to Arthur. Fortunately, he only suffered minor injuries. This year, God It’s cruel enough for me, my father passed away in the middle of the year, and if I lose a friend who helped me a lot at the end of the year, I really don’t know how I will spend this time.”

When Paulina heard Tennyson's words, the stone in her heart was finally relieved. She held the tray in one hand and covered her chest with the other, with a relieved smile on her face.

"It's great that Mr. Hastings is okay! You simply don't know how we Poles lived during this time. At night, there were drunks throwing stones at our windows and shouting Something to tell us to go back to Poland.

The children said that the windows were leaking and they were shivering from the cold, but there was nothing we could do. Not only are we afraid to let those thugs leave. Even when I got home at night, I didn't even dare to turn on the kerosene lamp, and I definitely didn't dare to say a word. We were afraid that if the gang outside knew we were home, they would break in and take away the few valuables we had left.

Mr. Tennyson, if Mr. Hastings comes back, do you want to blame us? Could you please give us a few words? Although his assassins may have been Poles, not all Poles were that bad. It’s not that we want to stay in London and not go back, it’s that we can’t go back to Warsaw. Please help us tell Mr. Hastings not to fire us, we really need this job to support our family. "

Tennyson saw Polina shedding tears as she spoke, and he couldn't bear to comfort her: "Don't worry. If Arthur had opinions about the Poles, then he would never hire you from the beginning. Since he If you decide to do this, you won't change your mind temporarily. You have only been here for a short time, so you don't know his personality. It seems that this is not necessarily done by your government-in-exile.”

When Polina heard this, she couldn't help wiping her tears and said with determination: "How could it be possible that we did it? In London, there are not many people who are willing to speak for us. Dear gentlemen of "The British" It happens to be one of them.”

Speaking of this, Polina couldn't help but recite the Book of Jude and the Book of Revelation: "Those angels who did not keep their positions and left their dwellings, the Lord locked them in chains forever in darkness, waiting for the judgment of the great day. . And the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

While she was reciting this paragraph, half of the red devil's head suddenly appeared on the door panel.

When Agares heard this passage, he couldn't help but curled his lips and spat hot spit mixed with blood on the ground: "It's true that you believe what He said. The devil may not be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, but you guys Those who are deceived will be in darkness forever and will be tortured day and night.”

Following Agares through the door were Arthur, Alexandre Dumas and others wearing big-brimmed hats.

"Alfred, I haven't seen you for more than a week. Have you missed me?"

As soon as Alexandre Dumas finished speaking, he saw the sobbing Paulina and the overwhelmed Tennyson.

He thought he had crashed into something good, and his open arms suddenly drooped.

"this……"

Alexandre Dumas scratched his shaggy head: "Alfred, how can you make a lady so sad?"

When Paulina heard this, she just wiped her tears, forced a smile and clarified: "No, this has nothing to do with Mr. Tennyson, it's just that I'm a little excited. Mr. Dumas, please sit down first. I'll make you some tea."

After saying this, Polina quickly walked out of the room holding the tea tray.

Alexandre Dumas stared at Paulina's leaving back for a long time, and then returned the focus of his eyes to Tennyson.

The fat French man pinched his chin and raised his eyebrows: "Alfred, why didn't I realize that you and Miss Paulina actually..."

Hearing this, Tennyson quickly interrupted: "Alexander, don't talk nonsense. Miss Polina just asked me to do something."

"whats the matter?"

Tennyson was about to answer, but suddenly he saw Arthur who had found a comfortable place to sit down by himself, and swallowed the words that came to his lips.

"It's nothing, it's just that she hasn't been having a good time lately, so she came to chat with me to ease her mood."

Arthur casually started the manuscript for the next issue: "Is it because of the Liverpool case? I stopped by the Philharmonic Society before coming to the editorial office, and Frederick told me everything."

Tennyson was surprised: "Even Mr. Chopin was affected?"

"It's not a shock at all. His outstanding talent makes his situation obviously much better than that of ordinary Poles. However, at present, His Majesty the King's plan to appoint him as a royal pianist should be completely untrue."

"Ah...this..."

When Tennyson heard this, he couldn't help but ask: "What is Mr. Chopin going to do next?"

Arthur flipped through the manuscript and said: "Looking at him, he seemed a little discouraged. He told me that when the cholera situation eases a little, he will go to Paris. Moreover, I also think that he is It's better to live in Paris than in London.

First, his father is French, so there is no language communication barrier.

Secondly, the music atmosphere in Paris is obviously better than that in London. Although it is not as good as Vienna, it can be regarded as the second center of the music industry.

As for the third thing, for now, on the Polish issue, the French government and the people are firmly opposed to the Tsar's destruction of Poland's independence. Therefore, when he goes to Paris, his personal safety is guaranteed, at least there will be no mob attacks on his residence. "

Alexandre Dumas also said with regret: "If I hadn't been a political prisoner in France, I would have escorted him all the way back. Alas... It's a pity that this job can only be left to Heinrich now. "

When Tennyson heard this, he immediately thought of Heine's broken mouth. He couldn't help but ask: "Wouldn't there be a problem in handing Mr. Chopin over to Mr. Heine?"

Hearing this, Arthur picked up the tea cup and said: "At least it is better than leaving it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The political atmosphere in London is not quite right recently, with cholera, Poland, parliamentary reform and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' European rebalancing strategy all being disturbed. Together. Even during recess, there is a divorce lawsuit and Mr. Harrison's adult education. It's really hard for me to put a talented pianist like Frederick in this muddy water. I can’t bear it.”

Chapter 362/647
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