And finally…das irony

Karl Marx may be long dead, and the communist ideology that emerged from his work may be considered moribund in the 21st century’s globalised economy, but it seems irony is still alive and well after it emerged that a copy of the totemic left wing economic thinker’s magnus opus, Das Kapital, is set to fetch more than £100,000 at auction.

The first edition of the book, inscribed by the man himself to someone he once described as one of “my oldest friends and adherents”, but after the friendship had soured as “a scoundrel pure and simple”, is now expected to supply a demand at a price of £120,000.

The first volume published in 1867 was the only one published in Marx’s lifetime – in German – and presentation copies are very rare.

Only 1,000 copies of the book were printed for the book’s first run – the only edition to appear during Marx’s lifetime.

Marx died in 1883 and two further volumes were posthumously published by Engels, in 1885 and 1894.

Marx signed and dated the book on 18 September 1867, just four days after publication of the landmark work in leftwing ideology.

He inscribed it to his friend Johann Georg Eccarius, a German tailor and member, like Marx and Frederick Engels, of the League of the Just, which would evolve into the Communist League.

Simon Roberts, senior books specialist at Bonhams which will sell the book in London on 15 June, described it as “a stunningly important copy of a book that changed the world”.

Das Kapital was Marx’s attempt to describe how the capitalist system works and how it will destroy itself. He argues that an economic system based on private profit is unstable and leads to exploitation.