Karl Marx (56 page)
Authors: Francis Wheen
Semprun, Jorge 7
Shelley, Mary 71–2
Smith, Adam 68, 70–1, 259, 304
Sorge, Friedrich Adolph 323, 373
Southcott, Joanna 4
Soviet Union 2–4
Spectator, The
161–2
Stahl, Julius 31
Stalin, Joseph 2–3
Sterne, Laurence 307–8
Stieber, Wilhelm 163
Stirner, Max 94–7
Sue, Eugene 86–7
Sung, Kim II 2
Swift, Jonathan 305–6
Thiers, Adolphe 325–9
Times, The
325, 333, 342
Tolain, Henri Louis 284–5, 289
Trémaux, Pierre 364–5
Tristram Shandy
(Sterne) 25, 307
Turkey and Its Resources
(Urquhart) 208–09
University of Jena 33
Urquhart, David 207–13
Vehse, Karl Eduard 192
Vogt, Karl 168, 238–42
von Bornstedt, Adalbert 128–9
von Brüningk, Baron 192
von Brüningk, Baroness 189, 191–2
von Hatzfeldt, Countess 243, 245–7, 253
von Müller-Tellering, Eduard 167–8
von Savigny, Friedrich 24–5
von Schaper, Oberpräsident 46
von Schelling, F. W. 32–3, 54
von Schweitzer, Johann Baptist 286
von Struve, Gustav 153, 169
von Westphalen, Baron Ludwig 17–19, 33, 48
von Westphalen, Baroness Caroline Heubel 18, 52, 63, 92, 219, 266
von Westphalen, Edgar 18, 91, 289
von Westphalen, Ferdinand 18, 162, 192
von Westphalen, Heinrich Georg 219
Vorwärts!
66–7, 89–90, 111
Wagner, Richard 315, 317
Was Karl Marx a Satanist?
(Wurmbrand) 3–4
Weber, J. M. 241
Weitling, Wilhelm 99–106, 112, 277
Weydemeyer, Joseph 90–1, 101–2, 152, 157, 175, 177, 188–9
What is Property?
(Proudhon) 61
Wilhelm I, King 245–6
Wilhelm IV, King Friedrich 32, 36, 47–8, 89–90, 162–3, 165–6
William II, Frederick 141
Willich, August 146–7, 164–5, 191–3
Wilson, Edmund 308, 310
Wilson, Harold 299
Wolff, Wilhelm 112, 130–1, 266–7, 366
Woodhull, Victoria 337, 344
World 335–6
Wurmbrand, Reverend Richard 3–4
Wyttenbach, Hugo 13–14
Young Hegelians 24, 27, 31, 36, 43–4, 75, 80, 93, 94–5
I am grateful to the following institutions for their assistance: the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, final resting place of Marx’s letters and manuscripts as well as many other socialist archives of the period; the Karl Marx Museum (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) in Trier and its associated Karl Marx Study-Centre, not least for helping me find a record of Marx’s one surviving chess game; the Marx Memorial Library, London; the British Library; the London Library; the Public Records Office, Kew; the Census Office. My thanks, too, to the people who provided books and documents that might otherwise have eluded me: Anna Cuss of the Royal Society of Arts, Paul Foot, Mark Garnett, Ed Glinert, Ronald Gray, Bruce Page, Christopher Hawtree, Professor Colin Matthew, Bob O’Hara, Nick Spurrier. Both my agent, Pat Kavanagh, and Victoria Barnsley of Fourth Estate said yes to my suggestion of a Marx biography with heartening alacrity. But my greatest debt of love and gratitude is to Julia Thorogood, who never lost her enthusiasm for the book even at odd moments when my own faith and eyelids were sagging. Jack, Frank and GeorgeAnna Thorogood also gave great encouragement. Any errors of fact or interpretation are, of course, the sole responsibility of my beloved sons Bertie and Archie.
Francis Wheen is a writer, broadcaster and journalist. His previous book, a life of Tom Driberg, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.
Karl Marx
:
‘In his wonderfully entertaining biography, Wheen presents his subject as a man of both brilliance and frailty. Delving beneath the iconic status of the author of
Das Kapital
, Wheen captures Marx’s humanity, critically yet sympathetically.’
Observer
‘A marvellous book which combines years of voracious reading with stylish writing and polemical wit. Wheen’s object, triumphantly achieved, is to rescue Marx from those interminable haters and calumniators.’
Guardian
‘Wheen disproves the curious assumption of so many academics, that fluent writing is the inevitable counterpart of inadequate research … he approaches Marx rather as an enthusiastic naturalist might view a virile alligator; the beast is magnificent, but some of its habits are frankly disappointing … his combination of verve and forensic skill has infused much new life into the old revolutionary.’
TLS
‘This portrait is the first to show that the nineteenth century’s most original political theorist also lived a life rich in unintentional comedy … With this vivid, thought-provoking biography, Francis Wheen rescues Marx from the smoke-filled rooms of forgotten political debate. Whatever anyone thinks about Marxism, this is a Marx anybody can believe in.’
Scotsman
‘Karl Marx has not been served well by his biographers … If the time is now more favourable to Marx biography, we had no right to expect one as vivid and enjoyable as this. A triumph.’
Financial Times
‘We learn that Marx was a serious drinker and an inveterate sponger … Until I read this litany of seediness and venality, I never had much time for the man. Now I think of him as someone I’d like to have known.’
Evening Standard
‘… And why is Karl Marx even more popular than Harry Potter?’
Independent
‘I once tried to indicate the hopelessness of a character in one of my novels by having him contemplate writing a biography of Karl Marx. The point of this has now been thoroughly spoiled by Francis Wheen’s
Karl Marx
, which proved to be fascinating, funny, moving and – most startling of all – timely. His account of
Das Kapital
as a phantasmagoric Victorian novel is so compelling that I’ve started to read it.’ Sean French,
Independent
‘I also very much enjoyed Francis Wheen’s boils-and-all biography of Karl Marx and I shall never again stagger out of the Groucho and walk up Dean Street without glancing up at the flat where he used to live.’ Philip Kerr,
Independent
‘Stripping away both the piety and the demonology, Wheen’s book is fresh, funny, vivid and admirably short, revealing the contradictory man behind the forbidding bearded mask.’ John Campbell,
Independent
‘Karl Marx making a comeback in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse? It is hard to imagine but a touch of ironic genius is necessary for the achievement. Francis Wheen displays all these talents in his
Karl Marx
.’ Michael Foot,
Observer
‘Most original biography:
Karl Marx
by Francis Wheen.’ Frank McLynn,
Independent
‘Francis Wheen’s biography
Karl Marx
has a passionate energy and commitment that made me cheer as I read it … Wheen’s study is great fun, a bravura performance – well done yourself, I want to tell him.’ Tom Paulin,
Guardian
Also by Francis Wheen
Tom Driberg: His Life and Indiscretions
BOOK OF THE YEAR
According to:
John Banville
Lynn Barber
John Campbell
Nick Cohen
Terry Eagleton
Michael Foot
Sean French
Nick Hornby
Philip Kerr
Roger Lewis
Frank McLynn
Derwent May
Toby Mundy
Tom Paulin
Jeremy Paxman
Bem Pimlott
Kiernan Ryan
Richard Sennett
Barbara Trapido
A. N. Wilson
Jackie Wullschlager
First published in Great Britain in 1999 by
Fourth Estate Limited
6 Salem Road
London
W
2 4
BU
www.4thestate.co.uk
Copyright © Francis Wheen 1999
6
The right of Francis Wheen to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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