Writer 1879: Solitary Journey in France

Chapter 469 Lionel's "Fatal" Problem

As the Christmas holidays came to an end, Paris slowly awoke from its holiday slumber.

The fences along the street are still decorated with holly wreaths, and people have returned to their daily routines.

The sound of carriages rolling over the asphalt road began to increase, and the morning café was once again full of customers.

The topics of conversation almost always revolved around "Café," which was still playing in the comedy theater.

The show's popularity exceeded everyone's expectations.

Tickets for the Richelieu Hall are already sold out until the end of March, with shows every two days and every show completely sold out.

The queue to buy tickets stretched from the entrance of the comedy theater all the way to the street, with audiences willing to stand in the cold wind for one or two hours for it.

Tickets sold by scalpers have tripled in price, yet demand still exceeds supply.

"The Café" is compared to Molière's "The Misanthrope" and "The Miser," Racine's "Phaedel" and "Andromache," and Dumas fils' "La Dame aux Camélias"...

Together, they became the mainstay of box office revenue for the entire Paris Christmas season.

The difference is that the others are classics that have stood the test of time, while "Café" only ran for a month.

What's even more surprising is the composition of the audience for this play.

The stalls were still filled with impeccably dressed gentlemen and ladies, but the balcony and back rows were noticeably more populated with ordinary citizens.

Small shop owners, clerks, craftsmen, and even young people dressed as workers.

They had saved up for a long time just to see this play, which the newspapers called "a glimpse into the soul of France."

And "Café" certainly did not disappoint them.

Unlike "Thunderstorm," which requires a certain level of literary cultivation to fully appreciate its tragic power, or "The Choir," which relies on music to move people's hearts.

"Café" is so down-to-earth.

That dilapidated "Golden Sun" café, those ordinary people struggling to make ends meet, those lines that were humorous yet barbed...

It's like cutting a few pieces off the streets of Paris and bringing them directly onto the stage.

As a result, the lines from the play quickly slipped out of the theater and into everyday life in Paris.

January 10th, afternoon, Prokop Cafe
Two middle-aged men sat by the window, each with a cup of black coffee in front of them.

One of them was a bookseller, and the other was a printing factory owner.

The bookseller flipped through his ledger, his brow furrowed so deeply it could trap a fly: "Flour prices have gone up again, and paper prices are following suit. This business is impossible to run."

The printing factory owner spat: "That's right! Several of my workers came yesterday demanding their wages, saying they can barely afford bread anymore."

Guess what I said to them? I said, 'Do you think my little factory has mountains of gold and silver that I can never spend all of?'

The bookseller chuckled: "Come on, old buddy, I know your factory too well. The machines are all twenty years old."

The printing shop owner shrugged: "I was just saying. But seriously, have you read 'The Café'?"

"I watched it last Sunday. It was so crowded I felt like my bones were about to fall apart."

The printing factory owner lowered his voice: "So, do you think our republic today is similar to the one in the play?"

The bookseller didn't answer immediately. He looked out the window; pedestrians hurried along the street, and a public carriage was passing by, its bell jingling.

After a long while, he shook his head: "I hope... I hope that even if another emperor comes along, it won't be like this every ten years."

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At the same time, a small bar on the left bank of the Seine.

This is a popular spot for students and young artists; cheap posters adorn the walls, and the air is thick with the smell of tobacco and beer.

Several young people were arguing heatedly around a table.

A painter with long hair banged on the table: "That's why I say, Professor François's words are the essence of the whole play!"

"Those fools who still try to 'find a way' are always the first to get swept away!" — That's reality!

A bespectacled student opposite him retorted: "That's despair! That's surrender! At least Lefebvre tried, even though he failed, he tried!"

"What's the point of trying? In the end, you still have to confess to the statue of the Virgin Mary and say that you were a fool?"

"That's better than doing nothing!"

A veteran who hadn't spoken until now suddenly asked, "What's the point of you arguing about this?"

Both of them turned to look at him.

The veteran twirled his wine glass: "These three characters in the play, Pierre, Lefebvre, and Saint-Cyr, don't they represent three different attitudes?"
Survival, hard work, perseverance. But what's the result? The same thing.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over his two companions: "That's why 'Jacques the Rapper' comes out to sing in every scene, singing about the bread tax, the guillotine, and the conscription order..."

He was telling us that no matter who you are or what era you live in, you cannot escape the fate of being crushed.

The painter frowned: "Then where do you think the way out lies?"

The veteran took a sip of his drink and laughed: "How would I know? I'm not Mr. Sorel. But I remember what he said at the end of the play."

"Which one?"

"Those who can do something should do it; those who can speak out should speak out. Give what little warmth and light you have."

The veteran repeated it word by word, then shrugged, "That's about it. Shine your own light, don't expect any torches."

The student wearing glasses pondered: "So 'Café.' isn't actually a play that makes people despair?"

The veteran said, "Of course not. It's like tearing open the scar to show you, but only after you've seen it do you know where the wound is and how much blood you've lost."

Someone at the next table started humming the tune of "Jacques the Rapist," breaking it down: "The first oddity is the bakery—the bread is as hard as iron..." Soon, several more voices joined in.

The tavern owner shook his head and smiled behind the counter, not stopping him.

He's been listening to this tune so much over the past month that his ears are practically calloused.

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These fragments of dialogue occur in different places and among different groups of people, and the lines from "The Café" are becoming integrated into daily life in Paris.

In salons, at stock exchanges, in pubs, and at family dinner tables, those concise sentences are repeatedly quoted and constantly given new meanings.

They have become tools for people to express dissatisfaction and ridicule, and have even become a new "social language".

To some extent, this allows drama to step out of the theater and continue to unfold in life.

At the same time, the play's influence is rapidly spreading beyond Paris.

The Lyon Opera House, the first outside of Paris to complete its electrification and receive certification, has already eagerly announced—

The premiere of "Café" will be held on February 15th!

The posters had long been plastered all over the streets and alleys of Lyon.

"A sensational masterpiece at the Comédie-Française in Paris!"

"Created with passion by Lionel Sorel!"

Are you ready to confront the very soul of the French nation?

The slogans were all incredibly catchy.

Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes... seven or eight local theaters have signed licensing agreements.

Those areas that have been renovated will be renovated first, while those that haven't been renovated yet will speed up construction, because everyone is afraid of falling behind.

These theater managers are very shrewd.

The success of "Café" in Paris has proven that the play not only has high artistic value, but also enormous commercial potential.

It attracted an even larger audience than the previous "Thunderstorm," with everyone from elites to ordinary people finding resonance in the play.

This is also why "The Café" achieved the same success without engaging in the same kind of "hype" as "Thunderstorm".

In addition, this is the work of Lionel Sorel, whose name is now a golden brand.

Novels, plays, bicycles, typewriters, giving speeches abroad... he succeeded in every field he ventured into.

Being associated with him is equivalent to being linked to "success", "fashion" and "cutting-edge".

So even though the licensing fee for "Café" was 30% higher than that for "Thunderstorm," theaters were still scrambling to pay it.

The messenger has been coming unusually frequently these days to the apartment at 117 Boulevard Saint-Germain.

Authorization contracts, advance payment drafts, theater renovation progress reports, performance plans... piled up on the table.

This was only submitted to him for review and signature after Mr. De La Ruwak had screened it; otherwise, Lionel wouldn't have been able to review it all.

In fact, Mr. De La Ruwak's notary office is almost entirely focused on the properties owned by Lionel.

De la Rue has completely refused new commissions and is almost entirely devoted to serving Lionel alone.

He never imagined that a French writer could achieve such commercial success as Lionel.

You know, the writers in this country have always been best at throwing money into the water and then not even making a sound.

For example, Balzac invested in printing presses, publishing houses, silver mines, pine and cypress trading, furniture sales, and coffee businesses throughout his life...

Without exception, all his attempts failed, leading to repeated bankruptcies. In the end, he could only pay off his debts by writing "The Human Comedy" in a frenzy.

Alexandre Dumas' attempts to open a theater and invest in politics all failed, ultimately forcing him to sell his "Castle of the Monte Cristo".

For a time, Alexandre Dumas fils invested in an "institution that shelters fallen women," which was both a charity and a business, but it eventually closed down due to continuous losses.

In the early years of his fame (the 30s and 40s), Victor Hugo attempted to speculate on real estate in Paris, but lost everything after the revolution of 1848.

Besides losing money on Panama Canal bonds, Émile Zola had previously lost money investing in land in Médan. He also didn't miss out on the usual practice of losing money running a newspaper, which often leads to the bankruptcy of French writers.

As a notary, Mr. De La Ruwak knew too many relevant cases, so he did not initially take Lionel's request very seriously.

He felt that this young man who had suddenly become "rich" would definitely give back all the money he had earned to society in a very short time due to his youthful arrogance.

No matter how hard he tried to stop him, he would force himself to take the francs from the banks and vaults and throw them into those bottomless pits.

Who knew that Lionel was an outlier? Not only did he not get carried away by absurd investments, but he also had an incredibly accurate grasp of various technological trends and social developments, and he could even personally participate in technological inventions.

In particular, the decision not to publish literary magazines and newspapers was something that deeply pleased De La Ruwak; in his eyes, there was no more foolish investment.

The era of a single author supporting a magazine, like Dickens and Dumas, is over.

The publishing industry and media today are on a completely different path from those of the first 50 years of the 19th century, thanks to telegraphs, railways, rotary printing presses, and so on.

Moreover, every collaborator Lionel found, whether scientists like Curie, Poincaré, and Tesla, or industrialists like Armand Peugeot, ultimately proved their worth.

With Lionel's pen being a goose that lays golden eggs, De La Ruwak felt that in his thirty years as a notary, he had never fought such a lucrative battle.

Even the De La Ruwak family, a notary family that has been in business for five generations, has never encountered a client who has developed so rapidly.

In his eyes, this rising wealth empire now has only one "fatal" problem...

(End of 2 chapters. Monday was too busy. I'll start adding more chapters tomorrow and the day after. Please vote with your monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)