Two women met through work and went on to become friends for seven years. It was their shared sense of humour that brought them together. Only, in this friendship one was dead (and had been so since 1898!) and the other was writing her story.
Earlier this month, Rachel Holmes, the author of Eleanor Marx: A Life (Bloomsbury, Rs 499), spoke about Karl Marx’s youngest daughter at a session held at British Council, organised in association with the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet. In conversation with Malavika Banerjee, the director of the Meet, Holmes revealed how she fell in love with Eleanor, who was a social activist and translator and quite a fun girl.
“She was like any other woman I could identify with… bad at housework, had a great sense of humour, loved to drink and have fun… yet had a strong political inclination and literary career. I admired her talent and sense of humour and hated the way she could go on tirelessly while I sometimes need a break,” she smiled.
Because Eleanor became a “friend”, Holmes loathed writing about her death. Eleanor consumed poison when she was 43 after learning that her partner had been unfaithful.
The book was released in 2014 in England. In Calcutta and Mumbai for the first time, Holmes started off by reading out a portion of her book that highlighted the poverty and hard circumstances surrounding Eleanor’s growing up, with her parents (Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphalen) and many siblings in a London flat. Yet life was full of activity for her, from taking acting classes and being involved in theatre to her political activism.
Eleanor was involved in translating and editing volumes of Capital. She also edited some of Marx’s lectures.
Details about Marx’s family life, his relationship with his wife, his housekeeper Helene Demuth as well as Eleanor’s reaction when she learnt about her alleged half-brother, Frederick, brought alive facets of the great thinker that may have remained little known to many of us.
Chandreyee Ghose
Which is your favourite biography? Tell t2@abp.in
