Marx on Timon of Athens

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sat Jun 5 11:01:16 PDT 1999


I was surprised, looking through a second hand copy of "Some Versions of Pastoral" by William Empson (1935), to see the first chapter entitled "Proletarian Literature".

This seems to flirt archly with marxist ideas. He *claims* the book examines "a form for reflecting a social background without obvious reference to it".

There is only one reference to Marx. In the chapter on Gay's "Beggar's Opera" (inspiration for Brecht's "Threepenny Opera"), he writes:

"Every reference to money in the Opera carries a satire on the normal attitude to it no less complete than those of Timon of Athens which Marx analysed with so much pleasure."

Marx would never have posited a "normal" attitude to money.

But the purpose of my post is to ask:

does anyone have a reference to (date, not just volume) or better an extract from, Marx on Timon of Athens?

Chris Burford

London



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