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adam_mcphee 's review for:
This was amazing. Highly, highly recommend this for anyone with an interest in left wing history.
A surprisingly heartwarming book. Reads like a 19th century novel. You struggle along with the Marx family when they're suffering (which is most of the time) and feel a great catharsis on their few triumphs. It explains all the famous anecdotes and provides context for the life and times of not just Marx and his works but also for his whole family. That's no small feat when you consider that Marx has always been surrounded by bad writing: there are the scurrilous attacks of reactionaries, the censorship and self-censorship of his defenders, not to mention the various language barriers. The story is mostly told through the letters Marx et al were constantly sending each other, and the amount of research the author put in is insane.
A surprisingly non-ideological look at Marx (settle down, Zizek). Published in 2011 at the end of the end of history, that was probably the last time you could get away with a bio that isn't really a defence or attack. Her criticisms of Karl are basically of what she sees as his sexism, despite also being a loving family man. First off, I don't think it's really fair to imply that anyone chooses the kind of poverty that they lived through. What's more, his wife and daughters were both highly literate and at the forefront of what was possible for women at the time, but you don't see them pinning the blame on Karl. As for Freddy, yeah Karl was in the wrong for cheating on Jenny, but considering the hate that his enemies still have for him to this day, I don't really see what other option there was than to occlude the Freddy's origins.
That said, I found the subtitle a bit misleading, Jenny inevitably doesn't have a whole lot to do once they're married and the children are along. Her voice is all over the book, because she's as much a correspondent as the others, but mostly she's just helping Marx. The focus is more on Marx and his three surviving daughters. His sons-in-law all come off like grand Victorian villains, btw. Especially Lafargue but especially Aveling.
I've gotta get better at taking notes, because there were so many parts of this I knew I should be jotting down, but my kindle is old and doesn't handle highlighting well and I'm too lazy when I'm reading on it to write with a pen. Alas.
A surprisingly heartwarming book. Reads like a 19th century novel. You struggle along with the Marx family when they're suffering (which is most of the time) and feel a great catharsis on their few triumphs. It explains all the famous anecdotes and provides context for the life and times of not just Marx and his works but also for his whole family. That's no small feat when you consider that Marx has always been surrounded by bad writing: there are the scurrilous attacks of reactionaries, the censorship and self-censorship of his defenders, not to mention the various language barriers. The story is mostly told through the letters Marx et al were constantly sending each other, and the amount of research the author put in is insane.
A surprisingly non-ideological look at Marx (settle down, Zizek). Published in 2011 at the end of the end of history, that was probably the last time you could get away with a bio that isn't really a defence or attack. Her criticisms of Karl are basically of what she sees as his sexism, despite also being a loving family man. First off, I don't think it's really fair to imply that anyone chooses the kind of poverty that they lived through. What's more, his wife and daughters were both highly literate and at the forefront of what was possible for women at the time, but you don't see them pinning the blame on Karl. As for Freddy, yeah Karl was in the wrong for cheating on Jenny, but considering the hate that his enemies still have for him to this day, I don't really see what other option there was than to occlude the Freddy's origins.
That said, I found the subtitle a bit misleading, Jenny inevitably doesn't have a whole lot to do once they're married and the children are along. Her voice is all over the book, because she's as much a correspondent as the others, but mostly she's just helping Marx. The focus is more on Marx and his three surviving daughters. His sons-in-law all come off like grand Victorian villains, btw. Especially Lafargue but especially Aveling.
I've gotta get better at taking notes, because there were so many parts of this I knew I should be jotting down, but my kindle is old and doesn't handle highlighting well and I'm too lazy when I'm reading on it to write with a pen. Alas.