Letter to Gabriel Deville, August 12, 1883

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 August 1883


First published, heavily abridged, in: M. Dommanget, Karl Marx et Frédéric Engels, Paris, 1951 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 36, Moscow, 1964
Printed according to the original
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO GABRIEL DEVILLE

IN PARIS

London, 12 August 1883

122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Citizen Deville,

I have received your letter and your manuscript, for which I thank you.[1] Next week I shall be leaving London for a seaside resort.[2]

There I shall have sufficient leisure to look over your work which will be returned to you as soon as possible.

Your manuscript arrived at an opportune moment. Only yesterday I completed the final editing of the 3rd German edition of Capital,[3] [4] and have undertaken to begin editing the 2nd volume immediately on my return from the seaside. So your work reached me precisely at the moment when I happened to have a short interval of time.

I have read the section you sent to Marx a little while ago; it seems to me very clear and very accurate. And, since it comprises the most difficult part of the work, there would appear to be no reason to anticipate any misapprehensions in the remaining sections.

Yours ever,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Following the appearance in 1875 of the French edition of Volume I of Capital (see Note 59), the French socialist Gabriel Deville considered issuing a short conspectus of this work (see Marx's letter to Deville of 23 January 1877, present edition, Vol. 45). On 2 August 1882 he met Marx in Paris where the latter looked through part of his manuscript. On 10 August 1883 Deville wrote to Engels that Paul Lafargue had told him he (Engels) was willing to read the rest of the work. He sent Engels the manuscript with the request that he make the necessary corrections. Deville's book was published that year under the title Le Capital de Karl Marx. Résumé et accompagné d'un aperçu sur le socialisme scientifique. In the Preface the author wrote that he had done the work 'at the courteous request and benevolent encouragement of Karl Marx'. Deville sent Engels a copy with his own dedication. For Engels' assessment of the book see this volume, pp. 61, 76-77.
  2. ↑ Between 17 August and 14 September 1883 Engels was on holiday in Eastbourne on the south coast of England.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 13-14 and 91.
  4. ↑ the first volume