Name: Mrs. Engels
ISBN: 9781936787296

Gavin McCrea

"First published in Australia and the UK by Scribe Publications"--T.p. verso.

Mrs. Engels

Sarah Vaughan

Mrs. Engels is the first insight I've been given into the world of Karl Marx and socialism. Mrs. Engels, also known as Lizzie Burns, was the long-time partner of Frederick Engels, the man behind the funding of Karl Marx and his socialism movement endeavors. 

While it did take me a while to get into the story, I was fascinated by the real-life events of Lizzie's life used by McCrea as subject matter for the book. Contracting a sexually transmitted disease after having sex for the first time that left her unable to bear children, knowing that Frederick had often taken other lovers, including her sister, and living among the upper-class to which she had risen from near poverty while being treated harshly by both sides must have been overwhelming and heartbreaking for Lizzie. Reading about her sister's many miscarriages - the babies fathered by Frederick, her sister's first lover - and her eventual death following a traumatic miscarriage led me to feel an enormous amount of compassion for Lizzie. 

This, combined with the hypocrisy of Engels' and Marx's socialism theories was an essential plot point. Engels, for example, was born into a wealthy family that owned the mills in which Lizzie and her sister worked for years to avoid starvation and homelessness. Yet here he is attempting to lead movements calling for equality for all classes. That would be quite easier to do from an office located in one of the nicest homes on Primrose Hill. Marx and Engels themselves never attempted to involve themselves in any revolts made toward abusive governments. They simply took credit for them afterward, while hundreds had died in the French Revolution led by peasants who were likely not even aware of Marx and his Communist Manifesto. At home, both Engels and Marx are unfaithful to their wives - Marx with his own housemaid, Frederick refuses to marry Lizzie until she is on her deathbed. 

Overall a very insightful book into the lives of these men and women instrumental in creating the idea of socialism, yet I found myself wanting to get through it quickly.

Mrs. Engels

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