Letter to Laura Lafargue, August 6, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written


First published in the language of the original (English) in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. I, Paris, 1956
Printed according to a photocopy of the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

Worthing, 6 August 1884
48 Marine Parade

My dear Laura,

Here we are and here is our address in as primitive a place as the British sea-side will admit of[1] — the first lodgings we took we had to leave because the old Madam objected to smoking!!

No Lager Beer as yet, but Percy is hunting some up at Brighton — as soon as that is to hand I will try whether I can digest Leroy-Beaulieu[2] ; it is blazing hot but fine continental heat and sea-breeze, the Channel is right before our noses but at ebbtide about 1½ mile away. Pumps and Nim just come in for beer, they say it is so hot they cannot stand it outside any longer and the house is indeed cooler.

Why, after all ces pauvres parisiens[3] will be done out of their share of cholera! What a shame after all their preparations.

Nim just says she hopes she has come into a fortune on July 31st in that grand drawing in Paris. If so, you are to telegraph at once to the Baroness de Demuth at the above address, as she wants to come out with a grand treat.

I am lazy and have so many letters to write! So I hope I shall have good news from Paul, that is to say that the great Leroy-Beaulieu is not in such a hurry to pocket his thrashing.[4]

Anyhow, I must take beneficium caloris[5] and conclude. The whole lot send any amount of loves, ditto

Yours affectionately,

F. E.

  1. ↑ Engels vacationed in Worthing on the South coast of England from about 5 August to 1 September 1884.
  2. ↑ In a letter of 25 July 1884 Paul Lafargue asked Engels to look through his résumé of P.P. Leroy-Beaulieu's book Le Collectivisme... in which the author set out to disprove some of the propositions of Marx's economic theory. For Engels' remarks on Lafargue's work 'La théorie de la plus-value de Karl Marx et la critique de M. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu' see this volume, pp. 179-83.
  3. ↑ those poor Parisians
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 174-75 and 179-83.
  5. ↑ beneficial heat