Letter to Filippo Turati, June 6, 1893

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 June 1893


First published in the language of the original (French), in Annali, an. I, Milano, 1958
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 50


ENGELS TO FILIPPO TURATI

IN MILAN

London, 6 June 1893

Dear citizen Turati,

Thank you very much for the information you were good enough to send me on the subject of the Domanico project.[1] I would very much like to reply to him as a young girl in Bellagio[2] replied to me more than fifty years ago when I said to her: Bella tosa, damm un basi—domani![3] Unfortunately that is impossible. He knows perfectly well that I am legally impotent in his case; he is not asking me for any authorisation, but simply suggesting that I associate myself in some way with his quite disinterested undertaking. As it is quite impossible for me to take on the revision of the translation (even if Domanico was willing to do it), I have no means of exerting pressure on him; I thought it was better for the moment to gain time and ask him for information; you will find at the end of this letter a copy of my reply to him.[4]

Is the edition of Capital in the Economist's Library in Turin to which you refer an Italian edition? I would be very interested in it, since that is something of which I have been unaware up till now; would you be so kind as to let me have the full title? and the name of the translator and the editor? so that I can get hold of a copy of this translation in order to say a few words about it in a new German edition or in the preface to the 3rd volume.

As for Deville's resume, I have reviewed the first part, but not the second half, the editor was too rushed. That is why Deville has sometimes presented as absolute theses of Marx which he had posited only as relative, as valid on certain conditions or with certain restrictions. However, that is the only fault I can find.[5]

The second edition of the 2nd volume of Capital will soon appear. I am reading the proofs of the last part, and it will not be long before it is published. There are only the printing errors to be corrected, but in a book of this kind that is always important.

Thank you for the translation of the Manifesto.[6]

Best regards to Mme Kulishov and to yourself from Mme Kautsky and yours truly,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ See this volume, pp. 219-20.
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 55.
  3. ↑ 'Kiss me, my sweetheart'—'tomorrow'. A play on words: 'domani' means 'tomorrow' and Domanico is a surname.
  4. ↑ See next letter.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 134.
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 176.