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106 MARX, Karl. Das Kapital Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Hamburg: Otto Meissner, 1867, 1885, & 1894 First editions, a complete set in contemporary bindings, of Marx’s polemical masterpiece. Only the first volume was published in Marx’s lifetime, with the rest seen through the press by Engels. The culmination of nearly 25 years of research, the most significant and influential analysis of capitalism ever written, Das Kapital became the bible of Marxist movements and governments. “Marx himself modestly described Das Kapital as a continuation of his Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie , 1859. It was in fact the summation of his quarter of a century’s economic studies, mostly in the Reading Room of the British Museum. The Athenaeum reviewer of the first English translation (1887) later wrote: ‘Under the guise of a critical analysis of capital, Karl Marx’s work is principally a polemic against capitalists and the capitalist mode of production, and it is this polemical tone which is its chief charm’. The historical-polemical passages, with their formidable documentation from British official sources, have remained memorable; and, as Marx (a chronic furunculosis victim) wrote to Engels while the volume was still in the press, ‘I hope the bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles all the rest of their lives’. By an odd quirk of history the first foreign translation of Das Kapital to appear was the Russian, which Petersburgers found in their bookshops early in April
1872. Giving his imprimatur, the censor, one Skuratov, had written ‘few people in Russia will read it, and still fewer will understand it’. He was wrong: the edition sold out quickly; and in 1880 Marx was writing to his friend F. A. Sorge that ‘our success is still greater in Russia, where Kapital is read and appreciated more than anywhere else’” ( PMM ). “The history of the twentieth century is Marx’s legacy. Stalin, Mao, Che, Castro – the icons and monsters of the modern age have all presented themselves as his heirs. Whether he would recognise them as such is quite another matter. Nevertheless, within one hundred years of his death half the world’s population was ruled by governments that professed Marxism to be their guiding faith. His ideas have transformed the study of economics, history, geography, sociology and literature. Not since Jesus Christ has an obscure pauper inspired such global devotion – or been so calamitously misinterpreted” (Wheen, p. 1). 3 volumes bound in 4 as issued, octavo. Vol I: (198 × 132 mm), contemporary half cloth and marbled boards, spine lettered in gilt. Recased, endpapers replaced. Clean tear to the gutter of page 15 repaired without loss, one or two pencil markings; a crisp, clean copy. Vol II: (208 × 135 mm), contemporary purple quarter sheep, spine lettered in gilt, green marbled sides, with the original wrappers bound in. Lightly rubbed, hinges split but holding. Vol III, parts one and two: (210 × 137 mm), contemporary purple half morocco, spines lettered in gilt, marbled sides and endpapers, edges red. Spines lightly sunned, very minor peripheral wear. A very good set, contents clean, each in a contemporary binding and scarce thus. ¶ Die Erstdrucke der Werke von Marx und Engels , p. 32; Einaudi
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