Jenny Marx Correspondence 1866
Source: MECW, Volume 42, p. 573;
First published: in Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Moscow, 1934.
Dear Sir,
For 4 weeks now my poor husband has been laid low again with his old, very painful and dangerous complaint, and no doubt I need scarcely tell you under what great and fearful anxieties we have all been suffering during that time. Right at the beginning of January he had begun to prepare his whole book [Capital] for printing, and he was making wonderfully rapid progress with copying, so that the manuscript piled up most impressively. Karl felt in the best of ‘spirits’ and was happy to be so far on at last, when a carbuncle suddenly erupted, soon to be followed by 2 others. The last one was especially bad and obstinate and furthermore was so awkwardly placed that it prevented him from walking or moving at all. This morning it has been bleeding more. strongly’, which has brought him some relief. Two days ago we began the arsenic cure, of which Karl expects a good effect. It is really dreadful for him to be interrupted again in the completion of his book, and in his delirium at night he is forever talking of the various chapters which are going round and round in his mind. This morning I brought him your letter in bed. He was very pleased that you had been kind enough to write, and he asked me to thank you at once for it on his behalf. A further concern is that his presence is sorely needed at this moment, both in the debates about the forthcoming congress of the International Association and in the discussions about the policy and editing of the new workers’ paper which is appearing weekly here now under the title of Commonwealth and represents both the newly formed workers’ party, with all the Co-operative Societies, and the International Association. His anxiety about all this has naturally done much to worsen the general state of his health. I hope that by the spring he will be sufficiently restored to be able to visit his friends in Germany. He had been very much looking forward to doing so.
Karl sends you his warmest greetings, to which, despite our not being acquainted, I add my respects.
Yours truly
Jenny Marx