Expelled from Paris in 1844, from Brussells in 1848, and from Cologne in 1849, Karl Marx moved to London where, with Engels’ support, he endured hunger, the deaths of three of his children and the nervous breakdown of his wife, spending most of the next two decades immersed in research for his great historical analysis of capitalism. The ‘Athenaeum’ reviewer of the first English 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… 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.’ Carbuncles, financial embarrassment and political preoccupations of many kinds hampered Marx’s work on Das Kapital, which he would never have completed but for the material and moral support of Engels” (PMM 359). 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 author described Das Kapital as a continuation of his Zur Kritik des Politischen Oekonomie, 1859.

“It is doubtful that any figure in history has inspired more violently contradictory opinions than Karl Marx” (Downs, 22). Thick octavo, original maroon publisher’s cloth.įirst complete edition in English, considered by many to be the definitive English edition, including the first volume written by Marx and the second and third volumes written by Frederich Engels from Marx’s notes. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF MARX’S CAPITAL

Capital by Karl Marx