http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm
is a ground-breaking work of economic analysis. But, argues Francis Wheen, it is also an unfinished literary masterpiece which, with its multi-layered structure, can be read as a Gothic novel, a Victorian melodrama, a Greek tragedy or a Swiftian satire
Francis Wheen
Saturday July 8, 2006
The Guardian
In February 1867, shortly before delivering the first volume of Das Kapital to the printers, Karl Marx urged Friedrich Engels to read The Unknown Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac. The story was itself a little masterpiece, he said, "full of the most delightful irony". We don't know whether Engels heeded the advice. If he did, he would certainly have spotted the irony but might have been surprised that his old friend could take any delight in it. The Unknown Masterpiece is the tale of Frenhofer, a great painter who spends 10 years working and reworking a portrait which will revolutionise art by providing "the most complete representation of reality". When at last his fellow artists Poussin and Porbus are allowed to inspect the finished canvas, they are horrified to see a blizzard of random forms and colours piled one upon another in confusion. "Ah!" Frenhofer cries, misinterpreting their wide-eyed amazement. "You did not anticipate such perfection!" But then he overhears Poussin telling Porbus that eventually Frenhofer must discover the truth - the portrait has been overpainted so many times that nothing remains. "Nothing on my canvas!" exclaimed Frenhofer, glancing alternately at the two painters and his picture.
"What have you done?" said Porbus in an undertone to Poussin.
The old man seized the young man's arm roughly, and said to him: "You see nothing there, clown! varlet! miscreant! hound! Why, what brought you here, then? - My good Porbus," he continued, turning to the older painter, "can it be that you, you too, are mocking at me? Answer me! I am your friend; tell me, have I spoiled my picture?"
Porbus hesitated, he dared not speak; but the anxiety depicted on the old man's white face was so heart-rending that he pointed to the canvas saying: "Look!"
Frenhofer gazed at his picture for a moment and staggered.
"Nothing! Nothing! And I have worked ten years!"
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