Books

Large octavo (28.5cm.); original parts bound in early 20th century blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine; 351pp.; pictorial half title and title pages, full-paged steel-engraved portrait and facsimile, additional vignettes throughout; text printed in double column. Boards a bit rubbed and corners bumped, foxing and toning to preliminaries as well as minor dampstaining to last few leaves of text, light foxing to rear cover; overall Very Good and sound. First appearance in French of Marx's "Das Kapital," the translation the only such to have been executed with the collaboration of the author, whose letter to Lachatre appears in facsimile on p. [7]: "J'applaudis � votre id�e de publier la traduction de 'Das Kapital' en livraisons p�riodiques. Sous cette forme l'ouvrage sera plus accessible � la classe ouvri�re et pour moi cette consid�ration l'emporte sur toute autre" ("I congratulate you on your idea to publish the translation of 'Das Kapital' as a periodical. In this format the work should be more accessible to the working class and to me this is more important than all else" (our translation). Maurice Lachatre (1814-1900) was a Parisian radical bookseller, publisher, and collaborator of F�lix Pyat's (with whom Marx butted heads over the growth of the International Working Men's Association in France). Lachatre's projected publication of the anarchist newspaper "La Commune" nearly cost him his life after the fall of the Paris Commune, when his bookshop was attacked with murderous intent by the Versaillaise army (see "The Publisher's Weekly," Vol. 19 (1881), pp. 50-1). It was while exiled first in Belgium and then Switzerland that Lachatre began work on publishing the present edition, though he was not free to return to Paris until 1879.

"Das Kapital," written by Karl Marx, is a seminal work critiquing the capitalist system's foundations and mechanisms. Published in 1867, this extensive analysis of capitalism delves into its economic processes, the exploitation inherent within, and its eventual contradictions which Marx believed would lead to its downfall. Marx introduces key concepts such as commodity, value, surplus value, and the labor theory of value, arguing that the value of a commodity is determined by the labor required for its production. He criticizes how capitalists profit by exploiting workers, paying them less than the value of their labor while selling the products for their full value. Marx's critique extends to the dynamics of capital accumulation, technological advancements, and their effects on the proletariat, predicting increasing capital centralization and crises stemming from capitalism's internal contradictions. "Das Kapital" covers the circulation and distribution of capital, explaining how surplus value is divided among different classes and sectors, leading to cycles of boom and bust. Despite its influence, "Das Kapital" has faced criticism for its total failure in economic predictions, such as the underestimation of capitalism's adaptability and the overemphasis on the labor theory of value. Critics argue Marx's predictions of escalating class struggle and the proletariat revolution have not materialized as expected, questioning his views on human nature and the efficiency of market mechanisms. Nonetheless, "Das Kapital" remains a pivotal work in economic and political thought, offering a deep, if wrong, critique of capitalism and its socio-economic impacts.