The daily Le Figaro met some authors and publishers by publishing an article asking which of the writers Guillaume Musso and Marc Levy was “the most useless”.
The article “Marc Levy vs. Guillaume Musso: Who is the most annoying?” ‘, published on the newspaper’s website on Wednesday, is drawn by a music critic known for his caustic tone and sometimes harsh judgments, Nicolas Ungemuth.
But the attack on these two novelists, very popular with readers, ended badly, as Guillaume Musso was the best-selling book in France in 2022 (1.383 million copies in total) and Marc Levy the ninth (630,000 copies).
“Proud to join Marc Levy and honored to join him. Extremely proud,” wrote Michèle Benbunan, head of Editis, parent company of Robert Laffont Editions, on Twitter on Thursday.
“We are happy and proud to host in Hachette Livre an author of Guillaume Musso’s caliber, able to converse with French men and women of all ages and backgrounds,” said Hachette’s general delegate on LinkedIn Book, Fabrice Bakhouche.
“The worst thing is your article and its condescension. Support for Marc_Levy and Guillaume Musso,” Franco-British writer Tatiana de Rosnay said on Twitter.
“Without this popular literature, publishers could not publish more confidential authors. The snobbery of this environment disgusts me,” responded the writer and doctor Baptiste Beaulieu.
Juan Asensio, a literary critic who doesn’t like best-selling authors very much, said he was skeptical of the article.
“Honestly, does @FigaroCulture really think he’s doing his job as a literary critic honestly when he compares Marc Levy to Guillaume Musso? (…) We laugh that Nicolas Ungemuth compares Michel Houellebecq more with Yann Moix! “, he guessed.
Guillaume Musso himself, who normally limits himself to advertising announcements on social networks, reacted on Wednesday. “In any case, our books are less pathetic than your articles,” he said.
Le Figaro is the daily partner of the GfK Institute for the annual ranking of writers by copies sold.
The article published on Tuesday, which announced Guillaume Musso’s first place for the 12th straight year, soberly noted that “Guillaume Musso is still at the top”.
“A real pride for Antibes,” said Alpes-Maritimes MP Éric Pauget, who comes from the same city as the writer, on Twitter.