Eleanor Marx Aveling and Laura Lafargue 1897
Source: (letter) Justice, 6 March 1897, p.3;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford;
Public Domain: this document is free of copyright restriction.
Mr Broadhouse is in fact the pen name of H.N Hyndman. Note by transcriber.
DEAR COMRADE, – Our attention has been called to the fact that what purports to be a translation of the first nine chapters of the first volume of our father’s work “Capital,” is being published by Mr. William Reeves, Fleet Street. Mr. Reeves is entirely within his legal rights in this publication, but for the sake of the many English readers, especially working-class readers, who may be induced to buy Mr. Reeves’ publication, we feel bound to state distinctly that, whilst Mr. Broadhouse’s translation is quite within the letter of the law, it is not authorised by the literary executors of Marx, and that it is full of the most serious inaccuracies The late Frederick Engels, who supervised and edited the authorised translation, wrote as follows of Mr. Broadhouse’s translation when that appeared, as it originally did, in a now defunct magazine, “Mr. Broadhouse is deficient in every quality required in a translation of Marx ... he makes Marx say the very reverse of what he does say .... turns German sense into English nonsense. When Marx says ‘white,’ Mr. Broadhouse sees no reason why he should not translate ‘black.’ .... I could give tenfold this number of instances to show that Mr. Broadhouse is in every respect not a fit and proper man to translate Marx, and especially so because he seems perfectly ignorant of what is really conscientious scientific work.”
The only authorised translation either of the whole first volume of “Capital,'’ or of the first nine chapters of it, is the one published by Mr. Sonnenschein, which had the inestimable advantage of revision by Engels. -Yours fraternally,
Laura Lafargue,
Eleanor Marx Aveling
Exactly the same letter was sent to The Times a fortnight previously on 22 February 1897.
Sir, – Our attention has been called to the fact that what purports to be a translation of the first nine chapters of the first volume of our father’s work “Capital,” is being published by Mr. William Reeves, Fleet Street. Mr. Reeves is entirely within his legal rights in this publication, but for the sake of the many English readers, especially working-class readers, who may be induced to buy Mr. Reeves’ publication, we feel bound to state distinctly that, whilst Mr. Broadhouse’s translation is quite within the letter of the law, it is not authorised by the literary executors of Marx, and that it is full of the most serious inaccuracies The late Frederick Engels, who supervised and edited the authorised translation, wrote as follows of Mr. Broadhouse’s translation when that appeared, as it originally did, in a now defunct magazine:-
“Mr. Broadhouse is deficient in every quality required in a translator of Marx. . . He makes Marx say the very reverse of what Marx does say .... turns German sense into English nonsense. When Marx says white ‘ Mr. Broadhouse sees no reason why he should not translate ‘black.’ I could give tenfold this number of instances to show that Mr. Broadhouse is in every respect not a fit and proper man to translate Marx, and especially so, because he seems perfectly ignorant of what is really conscientious scientific work.”
The only authorized translation either of the complete first volume or of the first nine chapters of Capital “ is the one published by Mr. Sonnenschein, which had the inestimable advantage of revision by Engels.
Yours faithfully,
Laura Lafargue,
Eleanor Marx Aveling
February 20,