Abstract

According to Gérard Genette, the chief function of an authorial preface is to ensure that the text is read properly. In other words, the purpose of the preface is to attract the reader’s attention and to steer him or her toward a particular understanding of the book. A preface, then, aims to get readers to read the book and often on certain terms, i.e., the author’s. As such, the authorial preface of Marx’s Capital (1867) is especially important — it allows us to understand how Marx himself hoped to be understood by his readers. Commentators, whether hostile or sympathetic, usually focus on the postface to the second edition of Marx’s work. We will instead focus on the preface to the first edition, as to uncover Marx’s immediate political aims and ethical concerns.