Lucien Is Commissioned to Attack d’Arthez’s Book is a crisis in which political obedience, friendship, and financial dependence converge. Ordered to review Daniel d’Arthez’s new book for the royalist press, Lucien first refuses, then writes a mocking attack under pressure to protect Coralie’s theatrical prospects. At midnight he confesses the conflict to d’Arthez, who revises the manuscript; Lucien submits it the next day. The episode makes the review not merely a piece of journalism but a measure of how far Lucien can separate his public work from his private conscience.

Political and Theatrical Pressures

The assignment arrives amid preparations for Coralie’s debut at the Gymnase Theatre. Lucien has sought to support her: he explained her situation privately to Camusot, a silk merchant who also served as a commercial-court judge and understood the booksellers’ finances. Camusot advanced him 4,500 francs on the condition that the endorsement be marked as value received in silks. Lucien gave the remaining money to Coralie without revealing where he had obtained it, easing the household’s immediate worries. He had also secured promises of favorable articles from several royalist editors, and Braulard agreed to bring his paid clappers to the final rehearsal to help manufacture applause.

The night before Coralie’s debut, the royalist newspaper office becomes the setting for a different kind of orchestration. The book has appeared, and the editor of Hector Merlin’s paper assigns it to Lucien, whose earlier pieces on Nathan have established him as an effective reviewer. Merlin, Martinville, Nathan, and other contributors are discussing the political struggle between the royalist papers and the liberal press. They regard the moderate language of Léon Giraud’s semiweekly paper as especially influential, and discuss Le Cénacle as a dangerous adversary, even calling it a Convention. The royalist papers have resolved to wage a systematic campaign against it; d’Arthez’s book is to be the first target, although his absolutist opinions are unknown to them.

The Refusal and the Ultimatum

Lucien refuses to write the attack. His refusal provokes scandal among the prominent royalists assembled at the office. They tell him that a recent convert has no right to an independent will: if he will not serve monarchy and religion, he can return to his former camp. Merlin and Martinville draw him aside and turn the dispute into a personal threat. Without royalist and ministerial papers to defend her, they warn, Coralie will be exposed to the liberal newspapers’ hostility just as she begins her career.

Martinville makes the bargain sound practical rather than ideological. He predicts that a storm of articles could keep Coralie performing for three months and bring her 30,000 francs from provincial engagements during her three-month leave. Lucien is told that a scruple will cost him both Coralie’s livelihood and his own future. The pressure exploits the dependence already visible in his efforts to finance and publicize her debut: refusing to attack d’Arthez now seems to risk the very support he has arranged for Coralie. Lucien returns home feeling that he must choose between his friend and his mistress.

The Midnight Visit

At home, Lucien reads the book before writing. He recognizes it as a major work and weeps over it, but eventually produces the kind of mocking article for which he is known. The draft treats the book like a beautiful bird plucked and tormented; its wit is capable of damaging the work it derides. Yet rereading d’Arthez’s writing revives Lucien’s better feelings. At midnight he crosses Paris to visit him.

Lucien sees the small, chaste light through d’Arthez’s window, a sight associated with his admiration for d’Arthez’s constancy. He cannot bring himself to go in at once and waits for several moments on a stone seat. When he finally knocks, he finds d’Arthez reading in a room without a fire. Lucien tells him, with tears in his eyes, that the book is sublime and that he has been ordered to attack it. He explains his position and asks d’Arthez to keep the visit secret, adding that he must remain in his own professional hell. The private confession exposes the separation between Lucien’s judgment of the book and the review he is expected to publish.

A Revised Article and an Unresolved Compromise

D’Arthez asks to see the manuscript. He smiles at its fatal misuse of wit, but recognizes Lucien’s genuine distress and offers to revise it. In his view, mockery dishonors a work, whereas grave and serious criticism can itself become a form of praise. He also says that he knows his own faults well enough to make the review more honorable to both writer and subject. The intervention does not erase Lucien’s complicity: it changes the article’s manner and gives d’Arthez some control over how his book is judged.

Lucien embraces d’Arthez, weeps, and kisses his forehead, describing the encounter as entrusting his conscience to his friend for a future return. D’Arthez responds by warning against repentance that recurs as a license for wrongdoing. He treats repentance as something singular and sacred, not a repeated absolution. The warning strikes Lucien deeply. He returns slowly to Rue de la Lune, and the next day takes the manuscript, revised by d’Arthez, to the newspaper. Lucien submits the attack rather than withdrawing from the assignment, even though its final form has been reshaped by the person it was meant to injure.

Consequences and Significance

The episode leaves Lucien with a melancholy he cannot always conceal. That mood carries into Coralie’s debut: he watches the crowded Gymnase Theatre with all his vanity and love exposed, alert to every murmur and small incident. The play falls, and Coralie receives a cold response from the audience; Camusot’s applause is silenced, while Martinville and others attempt to support her. The article’s submission precedes the performance, but the evidence does not make it the cause of the failure. Instead, the two events are placed side by side: Lucien has compromised his judgment to protect Coralie, yet the promised press machinery cannot guarantee success.

The encounter with d’Arthez likewise offers neither a clean refusal nor an easy absolution. Lucien recognizes the book’s merit, drafts an attack, confesses, and still carries a revised version to the paper. D’Arthez’s editing preserves a measure of seriousness in the criticism, while his rebuke makes clear that remorse cannot continually cancel the act that prompted it. The event thus reveals the personal cost of Lucien’s advancement in journalism: a profession that turns judgment into factional service forces him to choose between relationships and expediency, and leaves even his attempts at repair bound to the compromise he has made.