Letter to Jenny Marx, January 3, 1868

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 3 January 1868


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


ENGELS TO JENNY MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 3 January 1868

Dear Mrs Marx,

I must apologise for leaving your letter[1] unanswered for so long. But the Christmas period is the only time in the whole year when, apart from business, I am made to feel that I stand with one foot in the bourgeoisie, and here in Manchester this entails a lot of eating and drinking and upset stomach, and the obligatory ill humour and waste of time. This is now fairly well over, and I am beginning to breathe freely again.

I am really sorry that I was unable to lay my hands on a larger crate for the moment, but I had to take just what was available in the WAREHOUSE—I shall make up for this soon.

Enclosed the latest from Siebel. Do please return the letter, together with an earlier one sent to Moor, as soon as possible, I have to write to him on the 8th, the post goes only twice a month, and it is a great pleasure for the poor devil when he sees that people think of him. He does what he can honestly, despite his illness. The thing from the Barmer Zeitung is by him.671 Moor might let me know what he thinks about the business with the Kölnische Zeitung; if he thinks it better that I should write about this to Meissner, I can do so, and, at the same time, send him the cutting from Barmer.

The pater peccavi[2] from Hoffstetten is very amusing.[3] He naturally suspects Liebknecht everywhere and nobody else.[4] In any case, we have now put paid to the attempt of these gentry to stifle, and at the same time to exploit, the book.[5]

I shall be writing to Wilhelmchen in the next few days. I have heard nothing more from Kugelmann as to how things have gone with the Swabian articles.[6]

Meissner could already put together quite a nice advertisement from the articles that have appeared up to now,[7] which would be quite in place now that the Christmas season is over. In particular, he might include those passages in which the economists are challenged to present their defence.

I hope that Moor has been freed from his carbuncle. But this is all no good, he must do something to get rid of the business once and for all. The 2nd volume[8] can only gain, also with regard to the time needed for completion, if the fight against the carbuncles is waged with full force for a period. How would it be if he were to take arsenic again?

Best greetings to Moor and the whole family, and a hearty Happy New Year from

Yours

F. E.

  1. ↑ A reference to Jenny Marx's letter to Engels of 23 December 1867 in which she thanked him for the wine he had sent them for Christmas and informed him about the state of Marx's health. She also told Engels about the popularisation of Volume One of Capital in Germany and about his reviews which played an important role in this campaign.
  2. ↑ 'Father, I have sinned' (Luke 15:21)
  3. ↑ As Jenny Marx told Engels in her letter of 23 December 1867, the Lassallean J. B. von Hofstetten's answer to the article 'Plagiarism' (see Note 557) appeared in Die Zukunft on 18 December. Since 'Plagiarism' had been published anonymously, Hofstetten did not suspect that it had been written by Marx himself and ascribed the authorship to Liebknecht.
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 529.
  5. ↑ the first volume of Capital
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 499.
  7. ↑ A reference to Engels' reviews of Volume One of Capital. Engels intended to send them to Meissner so that he could compose and publish an advertisement of Marx's work.
  8. ↑ According to the arrangement with the publisher that Marx mentions in his letter, he planned after the publication of Volume One of Capital (appeared in September 1867) to publish Book Two and Book Three as Volume Two, and Book Four, which contained a critical history of economic theories, as a concluding Volume Three. After Marx's death, Engels prepared for the press and published manuscripts belonging to Book Two and Book Three as Volumes Two and Three of Capital; he died before he could prepare for the press Book Four, Theories of Surplus Value (Volume Four of Capital) and have it published (see also Note 227).