The less heartless you are, the higher and faster you'll climb. The more ruthlessly you strike others, the more they will fear you. You must treat men and women like relay horses, ride them until they are exhausted, and then discard them at the station; only then will you reach the pinnacle of your desires.
— Balzac, "Father Goriot"
Arthur, seeing Balzac's wary demeanor, immediately associated the relationship between the rotund Frenchman and another portly Frenchman with their abysmal rivalry.
Although Arthur hadn't delved into the origin of their animosity, judging by the current state of overt and covert conflicts in the Parisian literary scene, he thought it rather difficult for these writers to coexist harmoniously.
They not only competed for theater audiences and newspaper readers, basked in vanity, but also differed politically.
