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The great Marx-Engels rift – where to go on holiday?
KEITH FLETT explores the seaside divide afflicting the founding fathers of communism
Bridlington was a firm favourite on Engels
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MARX and Engels’s love of the Victorian seaside is well known. Their visits to Margate, Ramsgate and Eastbourne as well as Brighton and the Isle of Wight are documented.
However the two had a rare split when it came to location. Marx favoured the sea water and arguably slightly warmer conditions of southern seaside towns. His main concern was his health. He did venture north, not particularly in the summer, to visit spa towns like Harrogate and Buxton. Again the emphasis was on his health.
Engels by contrast spent at least some summers pursuing an interest in geology.
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The summer saw the co-founders of modern communism travelling from Ramsgate to Neuenahr to Scotland in search of good weather, good health and good newspapers in the reading rooms, writes KEITH FLETT
From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
Modern Christmas as we know it, with its trees, dinner menu, cards and time off from work, only dates back to the early days of modern socialism as we know it, writes KEITH FLETT, checking in on Marx, Engels and the Chartists in the 1800s