Karl Marx: A Biography

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150 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY

out."^64 As a result Engels found it difficult to make ends meet and wrote

to Marx in 1853 :

Reorganisation of my personal expenses becomes urgent, and in a week

or two I will move into cheaper lodgings and take to weaker drinks....

In the previous year, thank God, I got through half of my father's profits

in the firm here. As soon as the arrival of my old man approaches, I

will move into fine lodgings, produce fine cigars, wine, etc., so that we

can create an impression. That's life.^1 "

Although, as Engels had found previously, the centre of English free
trade afforded a good vantage point from which to view economic devel-
opments, he would have preferred to be elsewhere. Harney declared that
he would sooner be hanged in London than live in Manchester and
Engels often complained of his loneliness and boredom. In spite of a plan
early in 1852 to move to New Brighton with the entire Marx family, and
another scheme in 1854 to move to London as military correspondent of
the Daily News, he remained a prisoner in Manchester for twenty years.
Several communist friends came to visit him: Weerth who travelled widely
for his firm, Dronke who established himself in Bradford, and above all
Marx who came once or even twice a year - sometimes for weeks on end.
He was also able to renew his life with Mary Burns, though concern for
'respectability' prevented his living with her. His work for the Ermen and
Engels business did not keep him from matters of more importance to
himself: after a full day's work in his office he would regularly study
languages, military science (hence his nickname 'General'), and write
articles in Marx's stead.
Engels had a character that was in many ways the exact opposite of
Marx's: he was warm, optimistic, well balanced, full of joie de vivre, and
enjoyed the reputation of having a fine taste in all that concerned wine
and women. Towards his friends he was loyal, patient and unselfish; and
intellectually he had a quick, clear mind, and an ability to simplify -
sometimes oversimplify - deep and complex questions. In all his surviving
correspondence with Marx, Engels only once seems to have reproached
Marx - the occasion being Marx's cold reception of the news of Mary
Burns's death. The whole correspondence is remarkably unemotional.
Although Marx was sometimes angry at Engels' silences, there is only one
really abusive letter: Marx had quarrelled with Wilhelm Wolff (nicknamed
'Lupus') over a book that Wolff claimed Marx had borrowed from him
and not returned. When Engels' communications became a little less
frequent, Marx implied that Engels was putting him in second place to
Wolff and Dronke:

At least that is the method that you, since the arrival of Mr Lupus