Marx Karl - Karl Marx and world literature

T HIS is not a book about Marxism nor an attempt to construct yet another Marxist theory of literature. It seeks, instead, to present to the English reader, as fairly and fully as the authors own orientation allows, what Marx said about literature at various times in his life; what use he made of the many novels, poems, and plays which he read for enjoyment, recreation, or instruction; and how he introduced, into works not overtly concerned with literature, the terminology and concepts of literary criticism. The task seems necessary because mountains of commentary and elaboration are beginning to hide Marxs own words from view; because the standard compilations of his utterances on aesthetic matters tend to create confusion by mixing up pronouncements made at various times of his life, as well as pronouncements by Marx and by Engels;readers whose approach differs from mine but who have not, so far, had access to more than a fraction of the relevant material.

In making my translations from Marxs German works I have profitably and gratefully consulted existing versions by Bottomore, McLellan, Nicolaus, Livingstone, Milligan, Hook, Baxandall, Dona Torr, and many othersincluding, of course, Engels and the anonymous translators of the Selected Works published in Moscow. Of the Collected Works in English ( MECW ) only volume I had appeared when my manuscript went to press. I am also grateful to Dr. M. W. H. Schreuder of the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam, Professor Dr. R. Dlubek of the Institut fr Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK der SED, Berlin, Mr. R. S. Livingstone, as well as the staffs of the Library of the Freie Universitt, Berlin, and the Taylorian Library, Oxford, for assistance in finding out-of-the-way material; to the Faculty Board of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, for two travel-grants; andespeciallyto Professor Roy Pascal, Mr. T. J. Reed, Mr. Paul Foote, Mr. James Bolton, and Mr. T. F. Eagleton for helpful criticism and advice.

What is so very strange, Marx complains, in a letter to Engels, about a contemporary commentator, is to see how he treats the two of us as a singular: Marx and Engels says etc. (1 Aug. 1856; MEW XXIX, 68). I would not deny, of course, that Marx and Engels came to think alike on many points, nor would I assert that it is possible to disentangle neatly what each of them contributed to collaborative works like The German Ideology .

The following abbreviations have been used in notes and references: