Letter to Nikolai Danielson, November 9, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 9 November 1886


First published, in Russian, in Minuvshiye gody, No. 2, St Petersburg, 1908
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47
Reproduced from the original


ENGELS TO NIKOLAI DANIELSON

IN ST PETERSBURG

London, 9 November 1886

Dear Sir,

All this time I have been busy with the English translation of Volume I[1] which I hope will now be finished in a few weeks as I have read the first proof-sheets of the whole and only now have to read 2nd and 3rd corrections of the last 10 sheets. It was very hard work, as after all I shall be held responsible for the text. I have not been able to do anything else during that time, and thus a heap of other little matters have accumulated which I now shall clear off and then return to the 3rd volume. This, as I believe I told you, I have dictated from the original ms. into a legible handwriting,[2] and the greater part of it will not require much revision, but the chapter on the transformation of the rate of surplus value into the rate of profit, and that on banking capital, and to some extent — also that on the rent of land will take a deal of working out yet. I hope to bring the whole out next year, but shall not send anything off to the printer until the whole is completed.

The sale of Volume II up to March 1886 was 1,300 copies.

As soon as the English translation is out, I shall forward you a copy.

The reviews of Volume II in the German press have been exceedingly stupid. One, by a Dr Gross in Vienna, was very decent,[3] but the man is an idiot. Another by Professor Lexis in Breslau[4] is very clever in its way, the man understands the book perfectly, and knows that nothing can be said against it; but he is a Streber[5] and therefore disguises himself as a Vulgärökonom. It is in Hildebrand's Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, XL Band, 1885, 5tes Heft (5 December 1885).

I shall be only too glad when I can bring out the 3rd volume for as you say only then will the whole system of the author be completely understood and many stupid objections made at present will fall completely to the ground.

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ See this volume, pp. 567-69.
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 348.
  3. ↑ G. Groß, 'Marx, Karl: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Zweiter Band, Buch II', Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft im Deutschen Reich, No. 2, 1886.
  4. ↑ W. Lexis, 'Die Marx'sche Kapitaltheorie'.
  5. ↑ 'pusher'