Letter to Paul and Laura Lafargue, October 18, 1869

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 18 October 1869


First published in Annali dell'Istituto G. G. Feltrinelli, an. 1, Milano, 1958
Reproduced from the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO PAUL AND LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 18 October 1869

My dear Paul and Laura,

I send you to-day the manuscript of Mr Keller.[1] I cannot find his address. So you must through the aid of Schily get it out from M. Hess.

Tell Mr Keller that he shall go on. On the whole, I am satisfied with his translation, although it lacks elegance and is done in too negligent a way.

He will do best to send me every chapter through you. As to chapter IV I shall subdivide it.[2]

The changes I have made in this chapter II need not be maintained, but they show the direction in which I want the corrections to be made.

As to the word Verwertung[3] see my note p. 12 of his manuscript. He must make a note on it for the French reader.

I doubt whether the frequent large printing of words will do for French printers.

In German we use the word 'Process' (procès) for economical movements, as you say chemical procès, si je ne me trompe pas.[4] He translates by 'phenomena' which is nonsense. If he can find no other word, he must always translate by 'mouvement' or something analogous.

Kiss dear Schnappy on my behalf.

Yours

Old Nick

I have received a letter from St Petersbourg. A Russian sends me his work (in German[5] ) on the situation of the peasantry and the working class generally in that benighted country.[6]

[In Lafargue's handwriting]

Faire remarquer à Keller que les mots pointillés sont maintenus dans le texte.[7]

  1. ↑ A reference to the French translation of Volume One of Capital made by Charles Keller, member of the Paris Section of the First International. Keller began the work in October 1869, and on 16 October sent Marx the translation of Chapter II of the first volume for corrections. Keller took part in the Paris Commune and emigrated to Switzerland after its defeat. The work remained unfinished. The translation of Volume One of Capital into French was made by Joseph Roy and published in Paris in 1872-75 in instalments, which were later brought together in a book (on the French translation of Capital, see also Note 309).
  2. ↑ Chapter IV of Volume One of Capital (first German edition) corresponds to chapters IV, V and VI of the French edition. Marx feared that the chapter in its original form would not suit the French readers.
  3. ↑ increase of value
  4. ↑ if I am not mistaken
  5. ↑ should be 'in Russian'
  6. ↑ N. Flerovsky's book The Condition of the Working Class in Russia (H. OAepoBCKift, lïonoDKeHue paôouaeo wiacca et Pocciu) was sent to Marx by Danielson on 30 September (12 October), 1869. Danielson expressed the hope that it would supply Marx with the necessary material for the subsequent parts of his classical work Capital. This work prompted Marx to take up Russian seriously. (For Marx's opinion of Flerovsky's book see this volume, pp. 390, 423, 424).
  7. ↑ Let Keller retain the words underlined by dots.