Das Kapital.

The new religion. The complete first edition in four volumes. 'The history of the twentieth century is Marx's legacy. Stalin, Mao, Che, Castro - the icons and monsters of the modern age have all presented themselves as his heirs. Whether he would recognise them as such is quite another matter [...] Nevertheless, writing one hundred years after his death half the world's population was ruled by governments that professed Marxism to be their guiding faith. His ideas have transformed the study of economics, history, geography, sociology and literature. Not since Jesus Christ has an obscure pauper inspired such global devotion - or been so calamitously misinterpreted' (Francis Wheen, in his Introduction to Karl Marx, 1999).

Marx's masterpiece was the summation of over twenty years research in the reading rooms of the British Museum, and followed on from his earlier work Zur Kritik der Politisches Oekonomie, printed in 1859. It is rarely found complete, as here, since the last part was published more than 25 years after the first volume - and 11 years after his death; only the first volume appeared in Marx's lifetime. The first part was edited by Marx himself, while Friedrich Engels (1820-95) edited all others, until one year before his death. Interestingly the publisher Otto Meissner remained responsible for the entire publication.

First edition; 3 vols in 4 parts; 8vo; text in German; vols. I & III with tiny closed tears to title-pages, vol. IV with old stamp to title; modern brown half morocco gilt over marbled boards, a very good set.

PMM 359.