LE CAPITAL

Book Description

Paris: Maurice Lachatre et Cie., [1875].. 351,[1]pp. Quarto. Recent cloth, gilt label. Portrait. Pictorial title- page. Alternate pictorial title from first wrapper of parts issue. Facsimile letter. Text in double columns. Modest foxing early and late, some hand smudges and a few marginal nicks to first two leaves, but generally a very good copy. First edition in book form of the first translation into French of the first volume of DAS KAPITAL, first issued in parts from 1872-75. The translation was undertaken by M.J. Roy, with the intimate collaboration of Marx himself, who acknowledges the importance of his own substantive revisions in his postscript to the text (dated London 28 April 1875), emphasizing the independence of this text from that of the first edition. This printing includes rather ornate engraved head and tail pieces (somewhat out of character with the text itself), earning it the curious sobriquet of the "first illustrated edition." This copy has the following features which are generally taken to indicate the first issue: a) "1er livraison" and "Prix de la livraison: dix centimes" at the lower corners of the engraved title; b) engravings of buildings, a city square and obelisk on main title; c) ornate imprint of "typographie Lahure" on verso of title; and d) the text of a letter from Maurice Lachatre to Marx on the verso of the facsimile of Marx's letter to him. These features were either altered or omitted from the second "issue" of ca. 1878 issued under the imprint of the LIBRAIRIE DU PROGRESS. When the first translation into English was undertaken ten years later, Moore and Aveling, under Engels's editorial direction, incorporated the important revisions published first in this edition into their text. PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 359. ADAMS, p.53.

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