In a fond description of her three daughters when the eldest was 19, Marx's wife said that Laura's eyes shone 'with a continual fire of joy'. All three had a happy childhood, however materially pinched, like the 'Little Women' they sometimes compared themselves with. One was to die of cancer before reaching 40, the other two died by suicide. There was bad health in the family, afflicting all its members, two of the girls with insomnia among other ailments. This state of affairs owed much to poverty, as Marx could not help seeing. If he had to start again, he declared, he would choose the same life of a revolutionary, but he would not marry: his wife had undergone too much, and he was distressed at his daughters exposing themselves to the same fate.

LRB 16 September 1982 | PDF Download