Letter to Eduard Bernstein, May 17, 1884


ENGELS TO EDUARD BERNSTEIN

IN ZURICH

[London,] 17 May 1884

Dear Ede,

The ms.[1] will be finished today; there remains the checking and the polishing, which will take a day or two. Then you shall have it. I think that Kautsky is arranging for the Neue Zeit to print the chapter on the family (minus monogamy[2] ) as a sample and that the whole will be printed separately. You can let me have your suggestions about ways and means when you get it.

A word on the Paris elections[3] and other matters as soon as I have time. At the moment I am impatient to be done with the ms. and have left everything else, however urgent, on one side. It will be long — approx. 130 closely written octavo pages and is called Die Entstehung der Familie, des Privateigentums und des Staats.

Time for the post and a meal. Regards to Kautsky.

Your

F.E.

Amongst other vicissitudes, Pumps' little boy is very dangerously ill; I am very anxious about him.

  1. F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
  2. See present edition, Vol. 26, pp. 170-82.
  3. See this volume, p. 141.