Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1
By Karl Marx, translated by Paul Reitter, Princeton University Press, £35

The first English translation in 50 years of Karl Marx’s Capital Volume 1 was published several months ago by Princeton University Press. Translated by Paul Reitter, this version is the only one based on the last German edition revised by Marx himself. 

Reitter, in his Translator’s Preface, suggests that previous translations had difficulties in consistently handling Marx’s neologisms, held limiting policies such as noun-to-noun translation, fell short in rhythm and cadence, missed a certain sarcasm, and failed in “preserving the vividness and resonant qualities of the language in Capital.”

The upshot is a more readable, relatable, and refreshed Capital, that is more conversational, with Marx’s own style visible. In a thoroughgoing analysis of production, money, the commodity form, surplus-value, machinery, wages, accumulation, colonisation, and so forth, Marx historises, contextualises, and uncovers exploitative aspects of political economy that bourgeois economists had concealed, naturalised, and presented as inevitable.