Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 4, 1882

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 4 December 1882


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


MARX TO ENGELS

IN LONDON

[Ventnor,] 4 December 1882

DEAR FRED,

Herewith Bebel's letter[1] which I found most interesting. I do not believe an industrial crisis will supervene as soon as all that.

The weather in November was good on the whole, though very changeable. The first days of December alternated between bitter cold and a nasty, damp mugginess. Today it is fine, but I am never- theless condemned to remain in my room. In the last few days I have suffered from hoarseness (certainly not due to talking) and an un- pleasant sensation in my gullet; I have also been coughing more and not sleeping very well, despite my long, regular and constant walks. Hence I have again called in the doctor.[2] These gentlemen cannot be shaken off so easily! It is only a tracheal catarrh, but all the same he thought I ought to keep within doors until the inflammation has gone. Besides giving me some soothing medicine to take, he has ordered me to inhale vapour of benzoin (with something else added— seems to me something like chloroform). Today he again auscultated and percussed me — for the 3rd time since my arriv- al— and found that everything was otherwise in order. He will drop in again in a few days' time to see if I can be released from my confinement.

What is remarkable about the stuff in the Plebe concerning my theory of value is the rubbish talked by all 3, Laveleye, Cafiero and Candelari, in mutual opposition l'un contre l'autre.[3] In the quotation concerning my aforementioned theory of value which Candelari adduced from Malon's Histoire critique de l'économie politique, Malon's superficiality is such that it actually surpasses that of all 3 smatterers.

  • I hope that all right in 41, Maitland Park Road.[4] * I was ex- pecting a line or two from there, but I know that POOR Tussy OVER- WORKED.

Salut.

Moor

  1. ↑ This extract was first published, in German, in the catalogue Sotheby Parke Bernet and C, London, 1963, as item No. 247. The letter was said to take up half a page and was rendered in English, up to the passage published in this volume, as follows: Marx 'informing his correspondent that he sent off three copies of Das Kapital and received payment for them'. The letter was purchased by an agent of the Maggs Brothers auctioneers; its subsequent fate is unknown.
  2. ↑ James M. Williamson
  3. ↑ one against the other
  4. ↑ Marx's address in London