Karl Marx: A Biography

3 I 8 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY

small notice in the Saturday Review of January 1868 which said: 'The
author's views may be as pernicious as we conceive them to be, but there
can be no question as to the plausibility of his logic, the vigour of his
rhetoric, and the charm with which he invests the driest problems of
political economy.' The general attitude of Marx's trade union colleagues
was summed up by Peter Fox who, on being sent a copy by Marx, replied
that he felt like a man who had been given an elephant and did not know
what to do with it. The reception was indeed disappointing and Jenny
wrote to Kugelmann: 'You can believe me that seldom has a book been
written under more difficult circumstances, and I could write a secret
history that would uncover an infinite amount of worry, trouble and
anxiety. If the workers had an inkling of the sacrifice that was necessary
to complete this work, written only for them and in their interest, they
would perhaps show a bit more interest.'^214 But it took four long years
before the 1000 copies were sold.

VI. LIFE IN MODENA VILLAS

Although the double inheritance of 1864 undoubtedly gave Marx the
relative security that enabled him to finish Volume One of Capital, it had
by no means been the final solution. In April 1864 the Marxes moved to
a considerably larger house in Maitland Park Road, a few hundred yards
south of Grafton Terrace, where they remained for the next eleven years.
To Jenny in her memoirs 1 Modena Villas (the postal address was changed
to 1 Maitland Park Road in 1868 ) was 'a very attractive and healthy
dwelling which we fitted out very comfortably and relatively smartly....
A new, sunnily placed, friendly house with airy light rooms.'^215 Indeed,
later it seemed to her to be 'a veritable palace and, to my mind, far too
large and expensive a house'.^216 It was one of two detached houses at the
entrance to the Park with a flower garden in front, a well-stocked con-
servatory and plenty of space for their two dogs, three cats and two birds.
Each of the girls had her own room and Marx himself had a fine study
overlooking the Park, the room in which Marx wrote Volume One of
Capital and which served as a focal point for the First International. Paul
Lafargue has left the following description of Marx's study:

It was on the first floor, flooded by light from a broad window that

looked out on to the park. Opposite the window and on either side of

the fireplace the walls were lined with bookcases filled with books and

stacked up to the ceiling with newspapers and manuscripts. Opposite

the fireplace on one side of the window were two tables piled up with

papers, books and newspapers; in the middle of the room, well in the