The Arcades Project - Operi

political convictions it expressed .... Under the new arrangements, a journal had
to live by advertisements, ... and in order to have lots of advertisements, the
fourth page, which had become a publicity display, had to pass before the eyes of
a great many subscribers. In order to have lots of subscribers, some bait had to be
found that would speak to all opinions at the same time, and that would substi­
tute, for political interest, an item of general interest . ... Tbis is how, by starting
from the forty-franc newspaper and proceeding on to the advertisement, we
arrive, almost inevitably, at the serial novel." Alfred Nettement, Hislaire de la
litteralurejran,aise saus Ie Gauvernemenl de Ju illet (paris, 1859), vol. 1, pp. 301-
302. [d9a,1]
Sometimes, in publishing a novel in serial form, one would leave out part of the
work in order to get the newspaper-reading public to buy the book. [d9a,2]
In the editor's preface to ]ournet's Paesies el chanls harmaniens, Uncle TOm J Cabin,
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is quite appropriately placed on an equal footing with
Les Mysteres de Paris and Les Miserables. [d9a,3]
"'From time to time, one could read, III Le Journa.l des debuts, articles by
M. Michel Chevalier or M. Philarete Chasles, . .. articles of a socially progressive
tendency . ... The progressive articles in the Debats were customarily published
during the fortnight preceding subscription renewals, which occurred every four
months. On the eve of large renewals, Le Journal des debuts could be found
flirting with radicalism. This helps to explain how Le Journal des debats could
undertake the hold publication of Les Mysteres de Paris . .. -but this time, that
imprudent newspaper had gone further than it realized. As a consequence, many
wealthy bankers withdrew their support for the Debats . . . in order to found a
new paper, ... Ie Globe. This worthy predecessor of L 'Epoque . . . was aimed at
doing justice to the incendiary theories of M. Eugene Sue and of La Denwcratie
pacifique." A. Toussenel, Les Jufs, rois de l'epoque, ed. Gonet (Paris « 1886» ,
vol. 2, pp. 23-24. [d9a,4]
The boheme. "With Un Prince de la boheme (1840), Balzac wanted to portray a
. . . characteristic of this nascent boheme. The amorous preoccupations . . . of
Rusticoli de la Paiferine are only a Balzacian expansion upon the triumphs of
Marcel and Rodolphe, 15 which would soon follow . ... This novel contains a grandiloquent
definition of hohemianism, . . . the first . . . : The boheme-what
should he called the doctrine of the Boulevard des ltaliens-consists of young
people, . . . all men of genius in their way ? men as yet little known? but soon to
become known . ... Here one meets writers, administrators, soldiers? journalists,
artists! If the emperor of Russia purchased this bohemia for twenty million
francs, . .. and if it were subsequently deported to Odessa, then in a year Odessa
would be Paris.' . . . During this same period, George Sand . . . and Alphonse
Karr . .. initiated bohemian circles . ... But these were imaginary bohemias; and
that of Balzac was entirely fantastic. The hohemianism of Theophile Gautier, on