자본주의 사회주의 대안적 경제사회
Alternative Social Economy
Thursday, May 9, 2024
손민석 - 일본 학자들의 마르크스 문헌 재해석
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Stalin's internal quasi-colony- Vladimir Tikhonov | Facebook
Vladimir Tikhonov
oroentSsdp1f91i9ug81m7uu9457g31f26l0ht6cfh35hmcmgah20961h919 ·
These photos are from Kuznetsk of the early 1930s. The Party was building a huge metal works there. The design was done by Americans: Freyn Engineering Company was working there until 1933. Both Americans and Soviet engineers and cadres were living in decent redbrick houses. The workers, however, inhabited the barracks and dugouts, like the ones you can see below. The thing was that there was NO budget at all assigned for workers' housing in the beginning. In a word, the workers were asked to arrange their housing themselves in the best way they could. The result resembled....yes, exactly, the slums one could find in the developing countries of East Asia and which still are in abundance in, say, Latin America. The workers, for the most part, were former peasants who fled collectivization.
The more one studies early Soviet history the more one is struck by obvious similarity one finds there with the developmental regimes otherwise known as "normal" capitalist, especially on the (semi-)periphery.
20년간의 세대 간 사회이동 변화: 불평등연구회
불평등연구회
내비게이션 토글
[신규논문] 20년간의 세대 간 사회이동 변화: 30-49세 두 남성 코호트 비교 분석
박현준(펜실베니아대 사회학과)·정인관(숭실대 정보사회학과)
21세기 이후 한국에서 부모의 계급 배경과 자녀의 계급 지위 간의 상관성은 어떻게 변했을까?
이 연구는 1998년과 2018년 <한국노동패널조사> 자료를 이용, 1998년에 30-49세(1949년-68년생)에 해당하는 남성들과 2018년의 30-49세(1969-88년생) 남성들을 비교함으로써 이런 한계를 극복하고 있다.
연구의 결과는 다음과 같이 요약될 수 있다.
첫째, 한국사회의 절대적 이동률은 여전히 높은 편이다. 20년 사이 계급의 상승이동률은 감소하였으나 이는 부모들 중 농민에 해당하는 사람들의 감소에 따른 자연스러운 변화로 볼 수 있다.
둘째, 한국사회의 상대적 이동률은 지난 20년 사이 오히려 증가한 것으로 나타났다. 1998년 아버지-아들의 계급 연관성에 비해 2018년의 연관성은 30% 가량 약화되었다.
셋째, 핵심유동성 모형을 이용하여 상대적 이동률의 증가 원인을 살펴본 결과 개방성의 증대는 서비스 계급과 비육체 노동자 계급의 세습 약화로부터 기인함을 확인할 수 있었다.
끝으로, 여섯 개의 계급 분류 대신 직업별 지위를 점수화하여 측정하는 국제 사회경제지위 지수(ISEI)를 활용해서 보더라도 같은 결과를 발견할 수 있어 위의 결과가 직업의 지위를 어떻게 측정하는가와 상관없이 발견되는 견고한 양상임을 확인할 수 있었다.
이런 결과는 이전에 발표되었던 정인관과 박현준의 연구(2019, “Educational Expansion and Trends in Intergenerational Social Mobility among Korean Men” Social Science Research 83:102307)와 박현준의 연구(2021, 『세대 간 사회이동의 변화』, 박영스토리)와 일치하는 결과다. 다만 본 연구는 보다 일관된 데이터를 기반으로 동일한 결론을 재확인하는 동시에 사회이동 증가의 세부적인 기제를 확인하고 있다는 점에서 추가적인 의미를 지닌다.
논문정보:
<한국사회학> 55 권 3호(2021년): 159-191쪽
https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002755325
♣ 위 글은 아래 링크를 통해 PDF로도 보실 수 있습니다.
보도자료5_박현준_정인관_2021_한국사회학
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
알라딘: 사랑과 자본 카를과 예니 마르크스, 그리고 혁명의 탄생 메리 게이브리얼
천태화 (옮긴이) 모요사 2015-05-05
8
100자평 0편
리뷰 1편
세일즈포인트 160
사회운동가/혁명가 주간 36위
원제 Love and Capital (2011년)양장본
992쪽
책소개
2011년 전미도서상 논픽션 부문 최종후보에 오르며 화제가 되었다. 미국에서 한 해 동안 홍수처럼 쏟아져 나온 수많은 도서들 중에서 이 책이 다섯 손가락에 꼽힐 만큼 훌륭하다는 것이다. 이 책은 지금껏 출간된 마르크스의 여느 전기와는 판연히 다르다. 죽었지만 죽지 못하고 유령이 되어 지상을 떠돌던 마르크스에 관한 이야기가 아니라 살이 있고 피가 도는 살아 있는 마르크스를 비로소 이야기하고 있는 것이다.
인간 마르크스의 맨 얼굴은 사랑의 신열에 달뜬 청년, 아이의 재롱에 헤벌쭉 웃는 아버지, 생활의 무게에 짓눌린 가장, 숱한 좌절 속에서도 꾸역꾸역 살아갈 수밖에 없는 평범한 우리 이웃들의 초상이다. 거기에는 경외나 적의 없이 담담한 시선으로 바라볼 수 있는 낯설지 않은 삶이 있다. 카를 마르크스 역시 우리와 별반 다르지 않은 인간이었던 것이다.
전문 전기 작가인 메리 게이브리얼이 그리는 마르크스는 배경과 완벽하게 융화되어 살아 숨 쉰다. 저자는 마르크스의 특별함을 칭송하는 대신, 시대 속에서 고뇌하는 지식인을 말한다. 그리고 때로는 역사책을 방불케 할 정도로 세세한 배경과 사건 묘사에 많은 노력을 기울이지만 전혀 따분하지 않다. 독자는 저자의 안내에 따라 시끌벅적한 런던의 빈민굴에, 피비린내 풍기는 파리 코뮌의 현장 한가운데 서는 경험을 하게 될 것이다.
접기
목차
서문
프롤로그 1851년 런던
1부 마르크스와 남작의 딸
1 1835년 독일 트리어
2 1838년 베를린
3 1842년 쾰른
4 1843년 크로이츠나흐
2부 망명가족
5 1843년 파리
6 1844년 파리
7 1845년 파리
8 1845년 봄, 브뤼셀
9 1845년 런던
10 1846년 브뤼셀
11 1847년 브뤼셀
12 1848년 브뤼셀
13 1848년 파리
14 1848년 봄, 파리
15 1848년 쾰른
16 1848년 6월, 파리
17 1849년 쾰른
18 1849년 파리
3부 빅토리아 여왕 시대 영국에서의 망명생활
19 1849년 런던
20 1850년 8월, 네덜란드 잘트보멀
21 1851년 겨울, 런던
22 1852년 런던
23 1853년 런던
24 1855년 런던
4부 보헤미안 생활의 끝
25 1855년 가을, 런던
26 1857년 런던
27 1859년 런던
28 1861년 런던
29 1862년 런던
5부 『자본론』에서 코뮌으로
30 1864년 런던
31 1866년 런던
32 1867년 런던
33 1868년 런던
34 1869년 런던
35 1870년 가을, 파리
36 1871년 파리
37 1871년 여름, 프랑스 바녜르-드-뤼숑
6부 붉은 테러리스트 박사
38 1871년 런던
39 1872년 가을, 헤이그
40 1875년 런던
41 1880년 런던
42 1881년 런던
43 1882년 런던
44 1883년 런던
7부 마르크스 사후
45 1883년 봄, 런던
46 1885년 런던
47 1887년 런던
48 1889년 런던
49 1891년 런던
50 1892년 런던
51 1895년 런던
52 1897년 런던
53 1910년 프랑스 드라베이
감사의 말
인용문 저작권
주
참고문헌
옮긴이의 말
부록
-등장인물
-정치적 연대기
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추천글
동아일보: 동아일보 2015년 5월 16일자 '책의 향기'
한겨레: 한겨레 신문 2015년 5월 22일자 '출판 새책'
저자 소개
지은이: 메리 게이브리얼
저자파일 신간알리미 신청
최근작 : <사랑과 자본> … 총 19종 (모두보기)
베테랑 저널리스트이자 작가. 파리 소르본 대학과 메릴랜드 미술연구소에서 수학했으며, 아메리칸 대학에서 저널리즘 석사 학위를 받았다. 이후 20년 넘게 워싱턴과 런던에서 로이터통신의 국제부 편집자로 일했다. 첫 책 『악명 높은 빅토리아: 빅토리아 우드헐의 생애(Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored)』는 1998년 『뉴욕타임스』에 주목할 책으로 선정되었고, 2002년에 출간된 두 번째 책 『수집의 기술: 에타와 클레리벨 콘의 초상(The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone)』은 미국의 근대 프랑스 미술 컬렉션에 관한 가장 확실한 고전으로 평가받았다. 그녀는 현재 이탈리아에 살고 있다.
로이터통신을 그만둔 이후 그녀는 장장 8년 동안 카를 마르크스와 그의 가족의 삶을 추적하는 데 보냈다. 독일, 영국, 프랑스, 러시아, 아일랜드 등 마르크스와 그의 가족이 관련된 곳이라면 어디든지 달려가 편지와 자료들을 샅샅이 수집하고 분석했다. 특히 그동안 많은 연구자들이 간과했던 마르크스의 여인들(그의 아내와 성년까지 살아남은 세 딸)이 쓴 편지들에 주목했다. 그 결과 세상을 바꿀 혁명적 이론을 잉태한 한 남자의 가족에 관한 보기 드문 역작을 탄생시켰다.
일찍이 마르크스 전기는 많았으나, 그의 아내 예니와 딸들, 그리고 가족이나 다름없었던 프리드리히 엥겔스와 헬레네 데무트의 삶에 대해서까지 온전히 주의를 기울인 책은 없었다. 이 책은 마르크스 가족에게 평생 따라다녔던 가난과 박해, 그리고 숱한 자녀들의 죽음에 대한 철저한 고증을 거쳐 남편으로서, 아버지로서 그리고 인간으로서의 마르크스의 초상과 그의 가족의 인생 역정을 한 편의 대하드라마로 완성시킨 대작이다. 2011년에 전미도서상(National Book Award) 최종작으로 선정되었으며, 2012년에는 퓰리처상 전기 부문 최종작으로 지명되었다.
접기
옮긴이: 천태화
저자파일 신간알리미 신청
고려대학교 독어독문학과를 졸업하고 프리랜서 번역가로 활동 중이다. 『자기계발의 덫』, 『사랑과 자본』, 『미셸 오바마』 등을 번역했다.
접기
출판사 제공 책소개
신성도 마성도 벗어던진 ‘인간’ 마르크스
이 책은 2011년 전미도서상(National Book Award) 논픽션 부문 최종후보에 오르며 화제가 되었다. 미국에서 한 해 동안 홍수처럼 쏟아져 나온 수많은 도서들 중에서 이 책이 다섯 손가락에 꼽힐 만큼 훌륭하다는 것이다. 무엇이 이 책을 특별하게 만드는가.
이 책은 지금껏 출간된 마르크스의 여느 전기와는 판연히 다르다. 죽었지만 죽지 못하고 유령이 되어 지상을 떠돌던 마르크스에 관한 이야기가 아니라 살이 있고 피가 도는 살아 있는 마르크스를 비로소 이야기하고 있는 것이다. 인간 마르크스의 맨 얼굴은 사랑의 신열에 달뜬 청년, 아이의 재롱에 헤벌쭉 웃는 아버지, 생활의 무게에 짓눌린 가장, 숱한 좌절 속에서도 꾸역꾸역 살아갈 수밖에 없는 평범한 우리 이웃들의 초상이다. 거기에는 경외나 적의 없이 담담한 시선으로 바라볼 수 있는 낯설지 않은 삶이 있다. 카를 마르크스 역시 우리와 별반 다르지 않은 인간이었던 것이다!
마르크스는 인류 역사상 가장 많은 오해를 받은 인물 중 한 사람일 것이다. 그의 필생의 저작, 『자본론』이 스스로 말하기 시작하면서 역설적이게도 저자는 잊혀갔다.『자본론』은 지구의 반에서 경전이 되었고, 나머지 반에서는 금서가 되었다. 한쪽에서는 동상이 세워지고 다른 한쪽에서는 연일 저주와 악담이 쏟아져 나왔다. 그러므로 『자본론』이 말을 멈추기 전까지 우리가 보았던 인물은 실제로 이승에 살았던 마르크스가 아니었다. 그것은 『자본론』이 자신의 형상으로 빚어낸 창조물이었다. 그 속에는 “『자본론』은 그걸 쓰면서 피웠던 담배 값도 벌어주지 못할 것”이라고 투덜거리던 인간 마르크스는 없었다.
사랑과 혁명, 그리고 마르크스의 여인들
『자본론』이 아닌 마르크스에게 눈을 돌리자마자 우리에게는 그의 가족이 보인다. 허랑한 남편 또는 아버지로 인해 곤궁한 삶 속에 시들어버렸을 것이라고 추단, 또는 고의적으로 왜곡되었던 그들의 인생이 실은 마르크스의 사업과 얼마나 긴밀히 그리고 능동적으로 연관되었는지 이 책은 아주 잘 보여주고 있다. 저자에게 중요했던 것은 『자본론』이 아니라 그것의 완성에 바쳐진 한 가족의 삶이었다. 그래서 이 책의 주인공은 마르크스가 아니라 그와 그의 가족들이다.
사실 마르크스의 자녀들은 빈곤에 익숙해져 있었다. 마르크스가 『자본론』을 집필하기 시작한 1851년까지 자식 중 둘이 영양 결핍으로 죽었고, 그 작은 시신들은 다른 아이들이 먹고 뛰놀던 방 안에 궤짝같이 허름한 관 속에 눕혀져 있었다. 한때 프로이센 남작의 딸로 미모에 대한 찬사를 한 몸에 받던 마르크스의 아내, 예니는 빚쟁이들에게 돈을 갚기 위해 은식기부터 신발까지 세간살이를 가지고 전당포를 전전하는 신세로 전락했다.
아이들이 노는 공간은 항상 망명객들로 북적였는데, 그곳은 늘 시가와 파이프 담배 연기로 자욱했으며, 아이들의 귀는 상스러운 대화와 혁명의 단어들로 채워졌다. 그런 환경에서도 마르크스의 장난꾸러기 아들 에드가는 술 취한 도망자들의 이야기를 즐겼으며 친구들이 가르쳐준 혁명가를 목청껏 불러 젖혀서 마르크스를 기쁘게 했다(그러나 불행히도 에드가는 여덟 살을 채 넘기지 못하고 사망한다). 하지만 예니와 마르크스에게 가장 큰 걱정거리는 딸들이었다. 딸들이 평생의 가난을 모면할 유일한 희망은 상류사회의 아가씨들과 어울릴 수 있는 부르주아적 교육이라는 사실을 모를 리 없었다. 그들은 딸들이 머릿속엔 급진적인 사상으로 가득하지만 배 속은 텅 빈 채 집으로 돌아오는 남자와 일생을 함께하며 비참하게 사는 것을 원치 않았던 것이다. 그러나 아버지를 사랑하고 존경했던 딸들은 그들의 기대와는 달리 자신들과 대의를 함께할 혁명가와 결혼하며 마르크스와 예니의 삶을 되풀이한다.
특히 이 책에서는 마르크스의 가족을 돌보았던 하녀 헬레네 데무트의 삶에 상당 부분을 할애하고 있다. 그녀 역시 마르크스 가족과 빈곤을 함께 겪으며 함께 울고 웃었던 가족의 일원이었던 것이다. 마르크스를 질타할 때 가장 큰 흠으로 삼는 헬레네 데무트와 마르크스 사이에서 태어난 아들 프레데릭 데무트에 대해서도 비교적 자세한 얘기를 풀어내고 있다. 후에 프레데릭은 마르크스의 막내딸 엘레아노르의 절친한 친구가 되었으며 마르크스의 자식들 가운데 가장 오래 살아남아 마르크스의 세 딸들의 비극적인 생의 마지막을 지켜보는 유일한 사람이 된다.
가족의 희생을 대가로 탄생한 『자본론』
『자본론』은 천재적 사상가 마르크스가 어느 날 뚝딱 써낸 책이 아니다. 이 책은 난산에 난산을 거듭한 끝에 탄생했다. 밤마다 담배 연기 자욱한 골방에서 새벽까지 머리칼을 쥐어뜯는 외골수와 그런 사람을 가장으로 둔 한 가족의 오랜 신산한 삶을 대가로 탄생한 것이 바로 『자본론』이다. 그 오랜 기다림의 시간은 가족으로서의 의무적 헌신만으로는 설명되지 않는다. 아무리 무책임하고 독선적인 가장이라도 가족의 후원 없이 그 긴 세월을 오롯이 집필에만 투자할 수는 없다.
『자본론』은 마르크스 ‘가족’의 작품이다. 그래서 이 책의 저자는 여태까지 어느 누구도 주목하지 않았던 마르크스의 가장 가까운 동지인 가족들을 무대의 주인공으로 올려놓는다. 그것을 통해 저자는 오히려 마르크스와 그의 사상을 온전히 이해할 수 있는 길을 터놓았다.
애초의 기한을 한참 넘긴 후 마침내 『자본론』의 출간을 눈앞에 두었을 때 마르크스는 지인들에게 보낸 편지들에서 “그것을 위해 나는 건강, 행복, 내 가족까지도 희생했습니다”라고 썼으며, 책을 쓰는 동안 마르크스의 경제적인 삶을 책임졌던 엥겔스에게는 “일 년 안에 나는 성공하게 될 것으로 희망하고 또 확신하고 있네. 내 경제적 문제들을 근본적으로 뜯어고칠 수 있을 것이고 마침내 자립하게 될 거란 말일세”라고 잔뜩 기대감에 부풀어 말한다. 그러나 결과는 전연 딴판이었다. 『자본론』은 아무런 반향도 불러일으키지 못했다. 세상은 『자본론』이 나오기 전이나 후나 아무런 변화도 없이 믿을 수 없을 정도로 조용하기만 했다. 마르크스와 예니는 뜻밖의 상황에 당황했다.
예니는 엥겔스에게 보낸 편지에서 “우리가 오랫동안 카를의 책에 걸어왔던 은밀한 희망까지도 이제 독일인들의 ‘침묵의 음모’로 인해 물거품이 되어버렸군요”라고 말한다. 여기서 ‘은밀한 희망’이란 물론 『자본론』이 가져다줄 수익이었다. 가사를 꾸려야 했던 주부에게는 당연한 기대였다. 하지만 예니는 거기에 머무르지 않는다. “(『자본론』) 제2권은 게으름뱅이들을 깜짝 놀라게 만들어서 무기력에서 끌어낼 거예요. 그리고 그 작품의 과학적 성격에 관해 그간 침묵했었기 때문에 이제 더욱 격렬하게 그 사상의 맥락에 대해 공격을 퍼붓겠지요. 꼭 그렇게 될 거예요”라고 그녀는 덧붙였다. 예니는 단순히 『자본론』 저자의 아내가 아니라 스스로 제2의 저자였던 것이다(실제로 그녀는 남편의 지독한 악필을 사람들이 읽을 수 있는 문자로 옮겨 적었다). 그리고 그녀는 결국 ‘침묵의 음모’가 걷히고 『자본론』이 사람들의 관심을 끌기 시작할 때, 침대 맡에서 남편이 읽어주는 “『자본론』은 경제학에서 교조적인 이론의 틀을 깬 작품으로서, 그 혁명적 성격과 파급효과의 중요성은 천문학에서 코페르니쿠스의 이론, 또는 중력과 물리학의 법칙에 견줄 만하다”는 한 잡지의 서평을 들으며 “크고, 사랑스럽고, 그 어느 때보다도 반짝”이는 눈으로 남편을 올려다본다. 그리고 이틀 뒤 조용히 숨을 거두었다. 그런 예니를 알지 못하고는 마르크스의 삶을 온전히 이해할 수 없으며, 그의 사상에 대한 이해도 반쪽짜리일 수밖에 없다. 마르크스의 가족은 마르크스주의를 낳은 생산관계였던 것이다!
전문 전기 작가인 메리 게이브리얼이 그리는 마르크스는 배경과 완벽하게 융화되어 살아 숨 쉰다. 저자는 마르크스의 특별함을 칭송하는 대신, 시대 속에서 고뇌하는 지식인을 말한다. 그리고 때로는 역사책을 방불케 할 정도로 세세한 배경과 사건 묘사에 많은 노력을 기울이지만 전혀 따분하지 않다. 독자는 저자의 안내에 따라 시끌벅적한 런던의 빈민굴에, 피비린내 풍기는 파리 코뮌의 현장 한가운데 서는 경험을 하게 될 것이다.
이 책은 연구실에서 자료를 뒤적이며 쓴 책이 아니다. 저자가 발로 뛰며 마르크스의 인생 궤적을 되짚어서 복원해낸 삶의 기록이다. 저자는 마르크스 가족이 살았던 아파트 다락방을 방문했고 후손들과 대화도 나누었다. 그러므로 그의 설명과 통찰은 믿어도 좋다. 방대한 분량이지만 소설책 읽듯 책장이 술술 잘 넘어가는 것은 저자의 탁월한 기량 덕분일 것이며, 그것은 단순히 재미를 선사하는 차원을 넘어 시대와 인물에 대한 더 풍부한 이해로 우리를 인도한다.
“그는 인간이 할 수 있는 가장 위대한 학문적 업적을 남겼다. 마르크스는 세상의 마음을 바꾸어놓았다.” -조지 버나드 쇼
네오 2015-05-16
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네,,다시 마르크스의 계절입니다만,,기존의 선동만 하던 유형에서 탈피한 다른 접근 방식의 스토리입니다,,사랑와 자본은 마르크스와 예니에 대한 '사랑'이야기입니다만,,여기에는 양념으로 마르크스와 렌넨의 차마 주위에서는 입에 담지 못할 불륜드라마가 있습니다만,,최근의 막장드라마보다는 대단히 낭만적이면서도 섬세하게 그리고 있죠,,헌재에서 간통이라는 죄명이 형법조문에서 사라졌다고 해도 그 위법성까지 인정한건 아니죠,,이혼소송이라도 하면 그 이혼사유가 그 간통을 저지른 배우자에게 고스란히 귀책사유로 넘어가기 때문에 어마어마한 위자료를 물러줘야할지도 모릅니다만,,그동안 쌓아놓은 재산이 많다면 모험을 즐기는 것도 나쁘지 않다고 생각합니다만,,물론 마르크스가 살았던 시대는 젠틀한'맨'들의 시대였기 때문에,,불륜을 저지를만도 했을련지도 모르겠군요,,마르크스의 사랑은 그야말로 그가 저술한 책따위는 잊어버릴 정도로 지고지순한 것이었습니다,,참,,이렇게 보헤미안기질이 있던 사상가가 돈에 찌들어 살았다니 얼마나 가슴아픔 일이 겠습니다까..만약에 제가 그 당시에 살아다러면 그의 스타기질을 알아보고 재빨리 슈퍼스타 k에 출연신청을 대신해주고 싶을 정도인데요,,물론 그의 인세수입에 한몫할 생각도 있습니다만,,그가 남긴 저서들을 모조리 모으는 저같은 그의 추종자는 이루말을 할수 없을 정도의 비통함이죠,,이 책이 2011년 전미도서상 최종후보까지 올랐다는 홍보글을 읽고 도대체 수상작이 어덯길래 이런 훌륭한 책을 제챠쓸까라는 호기심에 그년도에 수상작을 찾아봤습니다,,네,,스티븐 그린블렛의 1417년 근대의 탄생이었습니다,,이,,책은 그당시에 번역도 상당히 빨리되어 구입해서 읽어본 기억이 남지만,,그렇게까지,,인상적인 느낌은 전혀 들이 않았습니다,,더불어 다름이 아닌 퓰리처상 인물부분에도 최종후보였습니다,,그 당시에는 아직 이책은 번역이 되지는 않았지만..조지캐논이 수상을 하였더군요,,이 책은,,냉전시대의 국무장관이었던 그의 세계를 전체적으로 조망한겁니다만,,번역이 될지는 미지수네요,,좋은책임에도요,,물론 어느책이 좋다고 우열을 가리는 것은 미련한 일이 아닐수 없죠,,책은 다 좋은 거니깐요,,아무튼,,마르크스가 사랑을 가지고 있는 뜨거운 열정의 남자라는 것은 보여줍니다,,그가 단지 자본론에서 논리만 세운 사람이었다면 결코 보봐리부인같은 사람을 불가능했을 것입니다,,약간 이분 즉흥적인 면도 있는 예술가시죠,,그러나,,다만 아쉬운것은 그 사랑늘 하기 위한 총탄이 언제나 부복했습니다,,지금같았으면,,민폐남이라고 불리며 어느 여성도 거들떠 보지 않았을텐제요,,데이트비용을 내지 않는 남성 매력없잖습니까,,거,탁하고 호기롭게 스파케티도 즐기면서 와인도 한잔해야하는데,,그때도 이런식사비용이 전혀 저렴한것이 아니었기에 항상 그는 빚에 쪼들리면서까지 낭비하는 버릇은 있어서 가끔은 그와 같은 부르조아 흉내는 낼수 있었습니다..자 이책을 읽는 것은 지금은 속물을 벋어던지는 로맨스을 한다는 것은 현실과 동떨어진 공산주의와 비견할 만큼의 시대가 되었습니다,,
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로쟈 2015-06-04메뉴
마르크스의 아내 예니 마르크스와 그 가족을 다룬 책이 연이어 나왔다. 이번주에 나온 건 예니 마르크스의 평전 <레드 예니>(오월의봄, 2015)이고, 얼마전에는 마르크스 가족의 이야기를 방대한 분량에 담은 메리 게이브리얼의 <사랑과 자본>(모요사, 2015)가 나왔었다. 마르크스 평전이 다루지 않은 더 깊은 속 이야기가 있는 듯싶다.
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution by Mary Gabriel | Goodreads
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
Mary Gabriel
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Brilliantly researched and wonderfully written, LOVE AND CAPITAL is a heartbreaking and dramatic saga of the family side of the man whose works would redefine the world after his death.
Drawing upon years of research, acclaimed biographer Mary Gabriel brings to light the story of Karl and Jenny Marx's marriage. We follow them as they roam Europe, on the run from governments amidst an age of revolution and a secret network of would-be revolutionaries, and see Karl not only as an intellectual, but as a protective father and loving husband, a revolutionary, a jokester, a man of tremendous passions, both political and personal.
In LOVE AND CAPITAL, Mary Gabriel has given us a vivid, resplendent, and truly human portrait of the Marxes-their desires, heartbreak and devotion to each other's ideals.
GenresHistoryBiographyNonfictionPoliticsPhilosophyEconomicsBiography Memoir
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709 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2011
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Mary Gabriel24 books131 followers
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Mary Gabriel was educated in the United States and France, and worked in Washington and London as a Reuters editor for nearly two decades. She is the author of two previous biographies: Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored, and The Art of Acquiring: A Portrait of Etta and Claribel Cone. She lives in Italy.
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Isadora Paiva
119 reviews · 77 followers
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October 13, 2020
As a daughter of two Marxist political economy professors, I grew up with this picture on the wall of our living room, which we called "uncle Marx". No joke.
A couple of years ago, my mom and dad read this biography and couldn't stop talking about it for months. I said I'd read it eventually, so they'd stop telling me about every single thing in the book, but to be honest I wasn't really looking forward to it. It's so looong. I'd never read a biography before (plenty of autobiographies and memoirs, though), because it seemed like they could either be boring recitations of facts, or go way overboard in the other direction and speculate in a sensational manner over things the author just can't know about. Boy, am I glad I decided to give it a go.
This is one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. A story of deep commitment to a cause, but also to other people. As a feminist who writes about the fact that the public/political and the private/personal are actually one and the same, I was so happy to find that this biography did not erase the women in this family, quite the contrary. Marx's wife Jenny and their daughters, together with their housekeeper Lenchen, all worked tirelessly to further the socialist cause, but in a way that is usually overlooked. Though Engels certainly receives a lot more credit, he is still not given his proper due. What a man! I think I fell in love. What to say of someone with so little vanity he sacrificed his life to furthering his friend's work, both economically and in editing Marx's writings instead of his own. He would say: "I simply cannot understand how anyone can be envious of genius; it's something so very special that we who have not got it know it to be unattainable from the start; but to be envious of anything like that one must have to be frightfully small minded".
I don't think I've ever heard of a friendship as deep as Engels and Marx had for each other, and a love like what he had for his wife is almost equally as rare, especially at that time. Though their lives were not without hardship, and Marx could be an insensitive asshole, it is undeniable that this was a group of people who shared an incredibly close bond. This is what Marx had to say in a letter to his wife, over 20 years after they had first fallen in love: "There are actually many women in the world, and some among them are beautiful. But where could I find again a face whose every feature, even every wrinkle, is a reminder of the greatest and sweetest memories of my life? Even my endless pains, my irreplaceable losses I read in your sweet countenance, and I kiss away the pain when I kiss your sweet face".
Though I'm sure a lot of biographies do fall in either of those camps I mentioned, Mary Gabriel's work on the Marx family is masterful. There is precious little speculation, and when it is unavoidable the bases for her thinking are clearly stated in a way that leaves the final say to the reader. It reads like a perfect mix of history book (lengthy portions are concerned with giving the reader the historical context for their lives, especially on big events such as The Springtime of Peoples in 1848), classic novel (the tone of the writing is as engaging, and there is certainly enough love and tragedy in this to compare to the greatest 19th century classics), and political and economic theory (the air that the Marx Family lived and breathed). Though a book of this size and subject could have easily become boring, I was gripped throughout. I fell in love with these people, and each death left me sobbing uncontrollably, in a way I faintly realized was ridiculous (these people have been dead for over a hundred years!), but I didn't care.
The one criticism I have of the book is that the footnotes are not very illuminating. Whenever the author quoted a letter that was published in Marx and Engels' Collected Works (and most of them are), she just points to the page, and we're often left to guess who the letter was sent to and when. As an obsessive checker of footnotes (I just can't ignore them), it started driving me nuts after a while.
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Adam McPhee
1,317 reviews · 238 followers
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March 14, 2023
This was amazing. Highly, highly recommend this for anyone with an interest in left wing history.
A surprisingly heartwarming book. Reads like a 19th century novel. You struggle along with the Marx family when they're suffering (which is most of the time) and feel a great catharsis on their few triumphs. It explains all the famous anecdotes and provides context for the life and times of not just Marx and his works but also for his whole family. That's no small feat when you consider that Marx has always been surrounded by bad writing: there are the scurrilous attacks of reactionaries, the censorship and self-censorship of his defenders, not to mention the various language barriers. The story is mostly told through the letters Marx et al were constantly sending each other, and the amount of research the author put in is insane.
A surprisingly non-ideological look at Marx (settle down, Zizek). Published in 2011 at the end of the end of history, that was probably the last time you could get away with a bio that isn't really a defence or attack. Her criticisms of Karl are basically of what she sees as his sexism, despite also being a loving family man. First off, I don't think it's really fair to imply that anyone chooses the kind of poverty that they lived through. What's more, his wife and daughters were both highly literate and at the forefront of what was possible for women at the time, but you don't see them pinning the blame on Karl. As for Freddy, yeah Karl was in the wrong for cheating on Jenny, but considering the hate that his enemies still have for him to this day, I don't really see what other option there was than to occlude the Freddy's origins.
That said, I found the subtitle a bit misleading, Jenny inevitably doesn't have a whole lot to do once they're married and the children are along. Her voice is all over the book, because she's as much a correspondent as the others, but mostly she's just helping Marx. The focus is more on Marx and his three surviving daughters. His sons-in-law all come off like grand Victorian villains, btw. Especially Lafargue but especially Aveling.
I've gotta get better at taking notes, because there were so many parts of this I knew I should be jotting down, but my kindle is old and doesn't handle highlighting well and I'm too lazy when I'm reading on it to write with a pen. Alas.
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Matthijs Krul
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August 20, 2012
The genre of the personal biography, when applied to famous historical figures, more often than not falls in the traps of sensationalism, moralism, or hagiography. This is not least the case when it comes to persons of considerable political controversy, such as Karl Marx and his friends and family. However, Mary Gabriel’s personal biography of the Marx-Engels clan studiously and brilliantly avoids all cliches and all sensationalism, portraying the characters ‘warts and all’, sympathetically but without making saints of them. Its almost 600 pages are unflaggingly interesting, intelligent, and informative even to those who are very well acquainted with Marxism’s theory and the chronology of its origins. But what’s more important is that it is virtually unique in its emphasis on the personal life of Karl and Jenny Marx, their children, their friends (not least of course Engels), and their many associates.
Although Gabriel makes sure to make clear the significance and substance of the various works Marx, Engels, and the family wrote or worked on during their life, this is not yet another political-romantic biography of the theoretical heroes of socialism. On the contrary, this book is a chronicle of their private hopes and pleasures, their struggles, and their difficulties. Also uncharacteristic for the many biographers of the Marx-Engels extended family is Gabriel’s courageous and timely decision to emphasize the significance of the lives and work of the women of the group: Jenny Marx, Karl’s wife; their three daughters, their only children to survive infancy; Freddy Demuth, the illegitimate son of Karl Marx; and the daughters’ partners, children, and friends. In the usual biographies of Marx and/or Engels, his wife appears merely in the background and his daughters are a footnote, but in Gabriel’s biography, they come into their own as serious and dedicated revolutionary thinkers and doers in their own right. In the process Mary Gabriel finally also clears up a number of small errors and confusions that have been copied from one biography to another, and she is to be commended for the great thoroughness with which she has conducted and presented her research on a topic many would think has been too fully mined to lead to any new gold.
In an era when both Marxism and the cause of women’s equality seem more under attack than ever before, and yet are more needed than ever, it is fitting and just that a great new biography should revive the founders of Marxism as human beings in all their glories and failings, and that for the first time the women in the family should play an equal role in the narrative. While the political and theoretical histories of Marx and Engels’ lives tend to be a story of triumph against adversity, Gabriel’s book makes it clear that this cannot by any means be said of the private lives of the family. More than anything else, it stands out clearly for the first time what a sad, difficult, and often despairing life they led, the women of the family especially. It has often been remarked on, but it only becomes clear from this work why the Marx women all died early, several to suicide; and it is clear that their lives were not as happy or as fulfilling of their own great talents, no less than those of the men, as they should have been.
Two great forces of their age made their lives more confined and more frustrated in its potential than anyone ought to accept of any society: on the one hand, Victorian moralism and the enduring power of patriarchal values; on the other hand, the more physical but no less destructive power of disease. The former held the women in restricted positions, endlessly sacrificing their wishes, their talents, and their very happiness to the cause of the men; the latter robbed them – the men no less than the women – of their strengths, energy, and future. In Gabriel’s book, there is rarely a moment that some member of the great Marxist family is not gravely ill. Many of Marx’s children as well as of his grandchildren died in childhood of vague diseases, caused by the poverty and inequality of their times, and incurable by the low level of medical expertise and the difficulty of affording it. In a time when both these great hostile forces, patriarchy and disease, are the prime enemies of the emancipation of humanity in most of the world, it is a sad but useful reminder of their impact to read about how they destroyed the Marx family. Even Marx himself may well have lived longer and been much more productive, to the lasting benefit of our knowledge of socialism, had he not been perpetually ill and taken such medication as mercury and arsenic, never mind much alcohol, to alleviate it.
Love and Capital is therefore not necessarily a happy read. But it is a fascinating read, full of lively detail, engaging writing, and sound judgements. It does without the hypocrisy or moralism of many hostile biographers but also free of the pretense that the Marx family was flawless in their personal life. The author also does not shy away from the real revolutionary commitment of all the participants, not just Marx and Engels but their wives, Marx’s children and husbands also, and does not try to reinvent them as ‘democratic’ egghead theorists or irrelevant Victorian ranters. If one has to have an objection, it is some very minor errors and that the copious endnote apparatus often contains no further explanation of the many interesting and illuminating details first mentioned in the text. But those are just quibbles. On the whole, this book by a respected Reuters editor (of all people) is of enormous benefit to our understanding of the historical reality of the founding family of Marxism, and in particular of the real contribution of Marx’s wife and daughters to setting this great movement of history in motion. It deserves to be widely read and will surely become a classic in the history of Marxism.
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Clif
456 reviews · 139 followers
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February 22, 2012
Any useful history must be written with thorough knowledge of the subject but this one adds sensitivity and affection to make the subjects breathe.
I was given this book and opened it with little more knowledge of Marx than of his appearance on the marker at his grave and the fact that he wrote a huge book. Engels was his sidekick.
Such "knowledge" is typical. It's a big world and we have only the most superficial concept of most things in it. Love and Capital was a wonderful revelation and education for me.
The Marx family endured poverty for decades but was tightly knit and dedicated to the success of the man and his ideology. But far from merely enduring in the face of adversity and continual disappointment, the family had many happy moments and the rich intellectual environment produced children with exceptional talents.
The book succeeds on many grounds - you will learn of the plight of women in 19th century Europe as Jenny Marx and her three girls deal with the limitations on their sex, the high infant mortality rate and the often cavalier behavior of men allowed by society to do as they wished within or without marriage.
In the background, the awful conditions for the masses resulted in violence continually as royalty and the business elite struggled to retain wealth and privilege. Revolutions, labor strife and fierce repression by reactionary forces all swirl about the Marx family.
Friedrich Engels is revealed as a man who lives a life guided by his philosophy. Though he is a businessman and makes good money at the head of a firm inherited from his father, he has no sense that his income is his alone, unstintingly sharing it to support many others in the service of socialism. Without him, Marx would not have been able to write Capital (over 17 years!) or his other works. Engels, from the start, had complete faith that Marx was uniquely qualified to describe the capitalist economic system in a scientific manner that would educate the world, but particularly the proletariat, and bring the revolution necessary to better their lives.
The bond between all members of the Marx household and Engels is strong and withstands every adversity over decades. His patience is phenomenal and when tragedy strikes he is always on hand, one of the most admirable men I've encountered in my readings of history.
And Karl Marx! What a character. Obsessed with his work, he is also a loving father ever willing to play with his children. He and his wife impart their love of Shakespeare to the children, who learn scenes so well that family enactments are common and a source of fun and laughter. Marx and his wife Jenny deeply love each other - one account telling of how it wasn't uncommon to find them avoiding each others gaze for fear of breaking into uncontrollable laughter. For several years the family is crammed into a two room unit when the children are very young, yet they support each other as a tight unit even through the death of a male sibling. One is made aware of the constant presence of death brought on with what might seem the most minor ailment, and of course there is routine infant mortality.
Characters are always dropping in on the Marx home and often stay for some time to enjoy the company or enjoy the food. You couldn't be more involved with it all, or feel the emotion more deeply.
The pairing off of the three daughters to questionable suitors is a story in itself.
There is intrigue. Marx is unfaithful in one instance, Engels comes to his aid and the family continues to thrive though a child is abandoned by his mother.
Far from being an advocate of violence, Marx is dismayed when violence occurs, believing that only by working democratically can the change he hopes to see arrive.
I couldn't help noting that such things as daycare for infants of workers was being asked for even in the 1840's!
One wonders about the durability of the elite. At one time it was royalty, then those in business. Here we are still dealing with the same inequality of wealth (growing in fact) in the 21st century and just now with a huge economic plunge that those of the 1800's would instantly recognize, and it arrived for reasons that Marx described as endemic to capitalism. The great rise of the unions has been rolled back and the 1% are firmly in the saddle again. The name Marx brings revulsion to many Americans. Socialism is a dirty word. Love and Capital will have you thinking about the present as well as the past.
Mary Gabriel easily earns five stars for this great read.
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Paul H.
832 reviews · 355 followers
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March 13, 2023
I'm not even particularly interested in Marxism, but it's impossible not to be fascinated by the story of Marx and his wife, and the writing is absolutely first-rate.
One of the more surreal sections involves an account of Marx's father-in-law -- Ludwig von Westphalen, a liberal aristocrat -- converting an impressionable teenage Karl Marx to socialism (you have to wonder how Ludwig would have felt about the historical results of this decision!) . . . somewhat similar to whichever Tsarist official ordered the killing of Lenin's brother, thus radicalizing him and indirectly causing the destruction of his own country.
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Kenghis Khan
135 reviews · 24 followers
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November 24, 2014
Five stars should be reserved for books like this.
A marvelous, beautiful and utterly amazing work by Gabriel, this book is without question the best book I have read in years. Written with wry humor, engaging tone, and incredible suspense that builds up to the magnificent tragedy that was the private life of the Marx family. One would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting reminder of the immense power of nonfiction. The book has all the trappings of a Jane Austen or even Tolstoy - a family, devoted to a single altruistic vision, who ironically struggle to find happiness for themselves. And yet, what makes it even more incredible is that it is all true. The author's impeccable research is evident in the brilliant use of source material to structure this grand epic. Ostensibly initiated as a biography of Marx's wife Jenny, the author traces the Marx family from its early beginnings in Trier between two family friends who become unlikely lovers, to the mysterious and untimely death of the last of Marx's daughters.
There is no shortage of gripping plot in this work. Perhaps most incredible of all is the ordeal that Marx's daughters and grandchildren had to go through in the Pyrenees. Their midnight escape from France to Spain following the fall of the Paris Commune, their attempts to sneak back into France, and how they played a cat and mouse game with the murderous French regime until they reached the safety of England - it is all the more incredible that these were a bunch of young women in their teens and twenties in an era when polite ladies were to be locked up in their gilded cages.
Indeed, as engaging as these incredible adventures are, the most striking aspect of this book is its characters, in all their glorious humanity.
The book is deeply respectful of all the family, but there are heroes with whom the author's admiration cannot escape the reader's attention that really make this book shine. Perhaps more than anyone before or since, Gabriel once and for eternity cements Friedrich Engels as the giant that he was. A towering intellect in his own right and an Atlas, the constant theme throughout the book is Engels' humanity. Where Marx could be self-absorbed and narcissistic, and Jenny Marx stoic as would befit an aristocrat, Engels was a man who wore his emotions on his sleeves. What makes him even more incredible in this book is the fact that unlike Marx he found a job, and never begrudged anyone else for relying on him to be the family breadwinner. His devotion to Marx extended to Jenny and Marx's daughters and knew no bounds. Engels was a revolutionary and a dreamer, but he had his foot firmly planted in the affairs of the world, becoming a skilled businessman. And yet he never lost sight of his ideals, and well into his old age he fought for the dream of his youth.
Yet for all the praise the book subtly bestows on Engels, Engels is ultimately not without his blindspots, which become most apparent with the book's second hero: Eleanor Marx. The author relates how Marx characterized his daughter Jenny as being most like him, but characterized Eleanor as him. Yet Eleanor lacked two important advantages of her father: his gender, and a loving spouse. Eleanor Tussy Marx ultimately broke off an engagement to pursue a life with Edward Aveling, a charlatan and, aside from Bismark and Marx's persecutors, the clear villain of this work. All of Marx's daughters married charlatans, but it was with Aveling that Engels failed his friend most by failing to protect Eleanor from him. A precocious revolutionary who was a rebel to the bone, but who also harbored an immensely compassionate soul, Eleanor emerges as the true heir to the father she so revered throughout her life. It is in one of the final chapters that we see Engels forced to reckon with the damage he had wrought and the disastrous consequences many of Engels' rare shortsightedness had for Eleanor Marx.
This is what makes this book such a delight - Engels is not perfect, and neither were any of the characters of the book. But they all meant incredibly well. Which is why the book is such a painful retelling of an incredible tragedy. People of such incredible compassion, who had their admirers, but yet none appear to have achieved much private happiness. Their lives, beginning with Jenny Marx who gave up her considerable upper-class privileges to marry the man of her dreams, were ultimately sacrificed for the calling of a man who, in the words of George Bernard Shaw, managed to change the world's mind. For this incredible contribution, they were rewarded with contempt, betrayal, poverty, and in the end what shines through is how the only thing that kept them going was each other.
That all this is told so lovingly and respectfully, yet engagingly, is a credit to the author. Easily one of my favorite books of all time, Love and Capital will be a classic that will be admired by many for decades to come.
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Christine Bonheure
657 reviews · 253 followers
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February 17, 2020
Last year I saw Johan Heldenbergh at work as Karl Marx. In a stunning epilogue, he orated that Marx's theory is still very much alive, the century we live in is a false copy of the nineteenth and a new revolution is on the way. Reason enough to delve into the life of Marx, his wife Jenny, children, friends and enemies. What a terrible life that family led! Poverty, deprivation, diseases, infant mortality, suicide... Workers were the playthings of the capitalists and there was no such thing as social security yet. Fortunately, Friedrich Engels, friend of Marx, remained a financial safety net for the family throughout his life. Marx's life was completely dominated by his revolutionary ideas. With his work he stood at the cradle of emerging socialism and thus changed the spirit of the time, an achievement that can count. Impressive portrait of the times and family history.
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BookishStitcher
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June 11, 2019
Wow, I now know so much about Karl Marx and I like him a lot less than I did before I read this book. What he put his family through was awful. Engels was a much more interesting character and as involved in the movement. I much preferred the parts about him and Marx's daughters. Poor Jenny, his wife had such a hard life because of his refusal to get an actual job.
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Courtney Johnston
479 reviews · 165 followers
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January 2, 2012
You know how you can feel quite comfortable you know a reasonable amount about a topic, say, for example, socialism and Marxism - enough, anyway, to get you through a casual conversation - and then you crack open a biography of Karl Marx and your first discovery is that he's not Russian like you always thought, but actually German? Yeah.
The fact that I clearly actually know NOTHING AT ALL about this period of history or basic economic theory is what kept me ploughing through this 600 page behemoth. It certainly wasn't because I'd developed a liking for Karl Marx or his wife Jenny von Westphalen, because they increasingly incensed me.
Karl and Jenny spent most of their married life running from creditors, borrowing money off friends, living off the capitalist spoils of Friedrich Engel's father's cotton business, and bringing up their three daughters in a nice bourgeois style. And being ill - god, these people spent a lot of time being ill.
[London, 1880] Marx, Jenny, Lenchen [Helen Demuth, the woman who lived with them for decades, helping Jenny run the household and mother of Marx's unacknowledged illegitimate son], and Tussy [Marx and Jenny's youngest daughter, Eleanor] were also ill and considered going to [the spa at Karlsbad] but the cost was too dear even for Engels, who paid the Marxes' medical bills on top of a living stipend. Marx's doctor suggested a less expensive spa at Bad Neuenahr, in western Germany. Marx delivered Lenchen to her family nearby and then he and Jenny and Tussy proceeded to the resort in the Ahr Valley and later farther into the Black Forest. The family was gone from London for a full two months, but Jenny and Marx returned in not much better health than when they left.
When he wasn't being ill (and, to be fair, when he was - especially with particularly unpleasant sounding carbuncles) Marx was hanging out in his study and the reading room at the British Library, teaching himself languages, researching more and more recherche subjects, and successfully failing in getting his pamphlets and books out in time to capitalise (hah!) on the events they chronicled. Volume I of Das Kapital, for example, was reluctantly delivered 16 years after Marx said it would be ready, and sold about 80 copies.
Snarkishly, I began to feel that Marx really lived out 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need' vis-à-vis Engels and Jenny. He took and took and took, and seemed to give very little in return. He did truly love Jenny, but that didn't stop him from spending several extended periods overseas and writing home (very occasionally) with accounts of the charming young ladies who were keeping him amused and well looked after. Engels bailed the family out over and over again, not just financially, but also by completing and taking over writing jobs that Marx had committed to but characteristically couldn't finish.
Having said that, Marx was a devoted father (you can't help but be Freudian about the fact that all three of his daughters tied themselves to men who were equally hopeless at real life and ground them down: one daughter died at 38, worn out by tough living and childbirth; another committed suicide; the third died in a suicide pact with her husband in her late 60s) and an even more devoted grandfather. The Marx family offered endless help to other refugees in London, and Marx's friendships were deep and close, if few: he was a deeply divisive personality, and it seems to say a lot that there were 11 people at his funeral, but 6,000 at the memorial of the second anniversary of his death.
Every time I got pissed off with Marx and Jenny, something tragic would happen - usually the death of a child or grandchild. This extract captures both reactions - from 1855, it documents the weeks after their six year old son, nicknamed Musch, died:
Marx called their situation agony, observing that even the "unremittingly awful" weather seemed one with the family's consuming grief. But there was one bright spot. They had learned that Jenny's uncle, the "cur" Marx had hoped would die earlier, finally died. With his passing they anticipated an inheritance of at least one hundred pounds, enough to see them through the year if they stayed within a budget. The inheritance, though, was bittersweet. Had it come earlier, who knows what could have been done to save Musch?
At two thirds the length (Gabriel could have, for example, sacrificed some of the repeated references to Jenny and her daughters' beauty, Marx's appearance) this could have been a very interesting book. And on quick reflection, it occurs to me that I would have enjoyed a dual biography of Marcx and Engels more (although I doubt it would have been as easy a sell for the publishers). I've learned a lot, but I've not enjoyed the process much, and I'm really just rather relieved it's over.
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Chrissie
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May 24, 2014
I have decided to not continue with Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution. It is not a bad book, but it deals primarily with Marx and his philosophy, not his family relationships nor his personality. It is very factual, a bit dry, filled with quotes and footnotes, a good history book. I read 20% and felt it was not giving me what I personally was looking for - who was he as a person?
My husband is going to read it instead, and then we can discuss it.
I have removed it from my "relationships" shelf. Now you know why.
2014-read was dnf
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