Letter to Maurice Lachâtre, May 12, 1874

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 12 May 1874


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow 1935
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO MAURICE LACHÂTRE

IN BRUSSELS

[London,] 12 May 1874

Dear Citizen,

It was not until today that I despatched to Paris the proofs[1] you sent me. I had a relapse; my doctor[2] sent me to the seaside resort of Ramsgate[3] and forbade me to do any work. It is as if the devil himself were involved. Now I am feeling better and hope I shall at last get it finished. There will be some three more instalments in all (including the instalment I have begun).[4]

I am much obliged to you for your amendments, etc. I have altered the sentence to which you drew my attention.

You will remember that I wrote to you in St Sebastian saying that Bismarck was backing Thiers, but that the Prussian ambas- sador, Arnim, was, with the King's[5] support, conspiring with the royalists. Bismarck has finally toppled Arnim and caused him to be recalled from Paris.

Yours ever,

Karl Marx

Roy's manuscript was finished long ago, but as the whole thing had to be reworked from start to finish, the printer[6] in Paris has not yet received my version, of which only the draft has been done.

  1. ↑ of the French edition of the first volume of Capital
  2. ↑ Eduard Gumpert
  3. ↑ Marx took treatment at Ramsgate from mid April to 5 May 1874.
  4. ↑ A reference to the French edition of the first volume of Capital. An attempt to translate Marx's principal work into French was first made by Charles Keller, a member of the Paris Section of the International. Between October 1869 and April 1870, he translated about 400 pages which he sent to Marx for editing, After the defeat of the Paris Commune, however, Keller was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, where he embraced Bakuninist views, after which Marx terminated co-operation with him.
    In December 1871, Paul Lafargue assisted Marx in concluding a contract for the publication of Capital with the progressive French journalist and publisher Maurice Lachâtre. The contract was signed on 15 February 1872. Under it, Capital was to appear in 44 instalments, one printer's sheet each. The work appeared between 1872 and 1875 in two instalments at a time, but was sold in series of five instalments each, making nine series in all.
    The last instalments having come out, the series were stitched together and sold as separate books.
    The first volume of Capital was translated into French by Joseph Roy. Marx did not think much of the effort and made a vast number of alterations, in fact, revised the book. As he himself said, the authorised French translation had an independent scientific value alongside the German original.
    In this edition, the first volume of Capital is published in Engels' authorised English translation with the interpolations from the French edition given in the Appendix (see present edition, Vol. 35).
  5. ↑ William I
  6. ↑ Louis Justin Lahure