Letter to Jenny Marx, April 19, 1874

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 19 April 1874


First published in Annali, an. 1, Milano, 1958. An excerpt from this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On History and People, McGraw Hill Book Company, New York, 1977. It appeared in English in full in The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979
Published in English in full in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45
Keywords : Letter, Jenny von Westphalen


MARX TO JENNY MARX

IN LONDON

Ramsgate,[1] SUNDAY [19 April 1874]
16 Abbot's Hill

Dear Jenny,

16 Abbot's Hill—vis-à-vis M m e Williams—that is the address of the 'CLIFF' where I have lodgings. But NEVER MIND! T h e r e was no price fixed for it either. T h e landlady first asked for £ 1 and then came down to 12 shillings. They are incidentally perfectly decent 'folk'; the man, a COACH BUILDER, seems also to dabble in art. H e has painted, and not just daubed, a very idealised and RATHER enigmatic figure who stands guard at the entrance to a certain place. A n d in the middle of the front-garden
there
is a ToM-THuMB-sized clay figure of Napoleon I, standing on a brick pedestal, dressed in black, yellow and red, etc., A VERY MANLY MAN, AND WELL DONE. T h e landlady has a n u m b e r of children, including a six-week-old KABY who often makes his presence felt in a very disagreeable manner.

T h e air here is delightful, but despite all the walking I do, I have not yet managed to get good night's sleep.

T h e place is not quite deserted, but it is the HOME BREWED PEOPLE who are most in evidence, as yet.

I hope that Jennychen is feeling better a n d that the EXCELLENT LITTLE MAN[2] is not suffering too much with his teeth. Both mother and son are constantly in my mind.

Apropos. Tell Tussychen who found Tennyson's Alexandrovna! so amusing, that there is nothing new under the sun (even though she is sufficiently well versed in the Bible to need no telling). In June 1872 the comte du Nord (subsequently Tsar Paul, the MADMAN, who was travelling under this name) found himself in Paris with his young wife. He was present at a session of the Académie Française at which M. de la Harpe read out a poetic epistle to his Altesse impériale}'1 Each stanza ended with the word 'Petrovich' (son of Peter), of which Grimm remarks:

'Apostrophe répétée, plus ridicule encore pour les oreilles russes qu'elle n'est étrange pour les nÎtres. Ce mot, lorsqu'il n'est pas précédé de quelque épithÚte qui le distingue, est aussi familier en russe que le serait celui de Toinette ou de Pierrot en français'.[3]

Tussy will be doing Tennyson a great favour if she sends this piece of information to the Quiddities and Oddities
Journal. GIVE MY THANKS TO ENGELS FOR HIS LETTER.[4] Such
a
punctilious correspondent is seldom met with in our temps corrompu? Adio and greetings to everyone.

Your

Karl

  1. ↑ Marx took treatment at Ramsgate from mid-April to 5 May 1874.
  2. ↑ Charles Longuet
  3. ↑ 'The repetition of this name is even more ridiculous in Russian ears than it is strange in ours. Unless preceded by some distinguishing epithet, the word is as common in Russian as Toinette or Pierrot would be in French.' See F. M. Grimm, Correspondance littĂ©raire, philosophique et critique de Grimm et de Diderot, depuis 1753 jusqu'en 1790, Vol. 11, Paris, 1830, pp. 154-55.
  4. ↑ Engels' letter has not been found.
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