Letter to Laura Lafargue, July 22, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 22 July 1884


First published, in the language of the original (English), in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. I, Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 22 July 1884

My dear Laura,

La suite à demain.[1] ... mais je l'attends encore, cette suite which was to explain to me the many otherwise inexplicable things in your last letter. Why, I thought you lived in one of the finest, airiest, healthiest, etc., quarter of Paris, at an elevation sufficient to raise you above all earthly things, and now all at once you are going to move, and that at this blessed hot time of the year, and Paul is going to Bordeaux, and the whole world is all sixes and sevens and the long and the short of it is that you are not coming[2] but must spend the hot season in Paris, and will only leave Paris at that season when Heine admired it most:

die Sterne
 sind am schönsten in Paris
Wenn sie eines Winterabends
Dort im Strassenkot sich spiegeln.[3] [4]

Well, Nim and Jollymeier who came on Friday,[5] and myself have given this matter our most serious consideration and we have come to the unanimous, but so far not very satisfactory conclusion: that something must be wrong somewhere.

Anyhow: As La Suite won't come, I hope you will after all come yourself and let all these considerations go to the wind. If you wait for Paul's going to Bordeaux to start a paper, that may or may not come off these next 100 years. If he does not go, and it is absolutely necessary that you should move from 66 Boulevard de Port-Royal, well, then let him hunt for apartments and do the moving. So I do not see what should stop you from coming over — if only for 3 weeks say — and as soon as you tell me that you are coming, we will make the road as smooth for you as we can.

Tussy and Edward are off on honeymoon No. I, if not back already again — the grand honeymoon is to come off next Thursday.[6] Of course, Nim, Jollymeier and I have been fully aware of what was going on for a considerable time and had a good laugh at these poor innocents who thought all the time we had no eyes, and who did not approach the quart d'heure de Rabelais[7] without a certain funk. However we soon got them over that. In fact had Tussy asked my advice before she leaped, I might have considered it my duty to expatiate upon the various possible and unavoidable consequences of their step — but when it was all settled, the best thing was for them to have it out at once before other people could take advantage of its being kept in the dark. And that was one of the reasons why I was glad that we knew all about it — if any wise people had found it out and come up to us with the grand news, we should have been prepared. I hope they will continue as happy as they seem now, I like Edward very much, and think it will be a good thing for him to come more into contact with other people besides the literary and lecturing circle in which he moved, he has a good foundation of solid studies, and felt himself out of place amongst that extremely superficial lot amongst whom fate had thrown him.

Jollymeier is very well and lively now — while I work he takes long walks — he is off now on one of them. Pumps has at last got over her bronchitis, etc., and will move to-day into her new house in Kilburn — beg pardon, 'West Hampstead' (I never knew Hampstead to reach as far as Edgware Road, but so it seems).

Nim is very well and lively — next week I suppose we shall have to move towards the sea, but where to? that grand question remains still to be solved. As to myself I am right enough on condition of keeping — for the present — within very narrow bounds both as to exercise, work and enjoyment—I hope the change of air will finally set me right.

And now for la suite, and let it be a good one, a suite that brings you over!

Paul's Blé has arrived this morning. What a pity he does not follow the wise counsels of la rédaction du[8] Journal des économistes!

Very affectionately yours,

F.E

  1. ↑ a This man will not go far; he does not know how to bide his time.
  2. ↑ Given the fact that a cholera epidemic was expected in Paris in the summer of 1884, Engels and Paul Lafarguc agreed to persuade Laura Lafargue to move to England for some time. However, Laura did not arrive at Engels' home until the autumn of 1884.
  3. ↑ The stars are at their prettiest in Paris, when they are reflected in the street filth on a winter's evening.
  4. ↑ Engels quotes from memory Heine's Atta Troll, Ch. II.
  5. ↑ 18 July
  6. ↑ 31 July
  7. ↑ Le quart d'heure de Rabelais — the moment of settling accounts, an unpleasant interlude. This expression originates from an episode which allegedly happened to the French author Rabelais and was retold by Voltaire. On his way from Rome to Paris, Rabelais stopped off at a hotel in Lyons and, not having any money to live on, thought up an original way of solving his problem. With the assistance of the son of the hotel's owner, he made some labels on which he wrote 'Poison to kill the King' and 'Poison to kill the Queen' to be attached to bottles. After that Rabelais, having now eaten his fill for free, was taken to Paris in the company of two police men.
  8. ↑ the editorial board of