Letter to Laura Lafargue, January 4, 1882

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 4 January 1882


First published in the language of the original (German) in Annali, an. I, Milano, 1958
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE 72

IN LONDON

Ventnor, 4 January 1882
1 St Boniface Gardens

Dear Laurachen,

Today is our first sunny and tolerable day in Ventnor. The weather is said to have been excellent — up till the time of our arri- val.234 Thereafter GALES EVERY DAY, wind raging and howling through- out the night, in the morning THE SKY OVERCAST, LEADEN, LONDONLIKE. Tem- perature significantly lower than in London and, on top of that, and most tiresome of all, a great deal of rain. (The air itself was of course 'purer' than in London.)

In the circumstances it was only natural that my cough, IN FACT my bronchial catarrh, should have got worse rather than better. But for all that I have progressed to the extent that for part of the night I sleep naturally, without opium, etc. However my general condition is not such as to render me fit for work. Today, ABOUT the end of the first week of our stay, it looks as though a change is setting in. Given warmer weather this would certainly be a splendid health resort for convalescents of my description.

My companion[1] (this strictly between ourselves) eats practically noth- ing; suffers badly from nervous tics; reads and writes all day long, when not engaged in buying the necessary provisions or taking short walks. She is very taciturn and, INDEED, seemingly endures stay- ing with me simply out of a sense of duty, as a self-sacrificing martyr.

Has there been no more news from Jenny about the arrival of the CHRISTMAS Box[2] ? I'm worried about the thing.

You will understand, dear child, if I have nothing positive to report to you from here, my experiences hitherto having been purely nega- tive, unless it be the great discovery that local literature here is repre- sented by 3 newspapers, and that there is even A SCHOOL OF ART and SCI- ENCE INSTITUTION where a big lecture is to be given next Monday even- ing ON THE CASTES AND 'MÉTIERS' OF INDIA.

Today I received a letter from Reinhardt in Paris in which he speaks of our sad bereavement[3] in the MOST SINCERE and MOST SYMPA- THETIC manner. The vehemence with which the bourgeois papers in Germany have announced either my demise, or at any rate the in- evitable imminence thereof, has tickled me hugely, and the 'man at odds with the world' will have to get fit for action again, if only to oblige them.

Willard Brown has written to Tussy from New York; he has entrust- ed the business of your house to a very intimate and competent friend of his in new Orleans[4] ; the latter has written to say that AT FIRST SIGHT there has been a great deal of underhand work but that he must first make further investigations in order to obtain actual proof.

I enclose, as a curiosity for Paul,[5] a cutting from the MONEY ARTICLE in The Times (29 December 1881)[6] which was obviously inserted by Messrs Say and Rothschild/(Regards to Paul and Helen.[7] )

Adio, MY DEAR CHILD, write soon.

Your

OLD NICK

  1. ↑ Eleanor Marx
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 164.
  3. ↑ the death of Jenny Marx
  4. ↑ This letter was written at Nikolai Utin's request and based on information received from him. Referring to the important services rendered to the party by Tomanovskaya, Marx meant her activities as a member of the Russian section of the International and her participation in the Paris Commune.
  5. ↑ Lafargue
  6. ↑ 'Money Market and City Intelligence', The Times, No. 30390, 29 December 1881.
  7. ↑ Demuth