Paul Lafargue (1842-1911) was born in Santiago, Cuba, and lived
there until the age of nine, when his family returned to their
hometown of Bordeaux, France. In his early twenties, Lafargue began
studying medicine in Paris, but after participating in a socialist
gathering was barred from the French university system and left the
country to continue his studies in London. There, he served as Karl
Marx's secretary and married Marx's daughter Laura. Moving back to
France in 1870, he participated in the Paris Commune and was again
forced to flee the country, first to Spain and then to England.
After amnesty was granted to the Communards in 1882, he and Laura
returned permanently to France, where Lafargue gained notoriety as
a writer of pamphlets and articles on politics and literature,
founded the country's first Marxist labor party, and earned his law
degree. On the night of November 26, 1911, he committed "rational
suicide" with Laura at their home near Paris. Lenin spoke at their
funeral.
Lucy Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of
Facts, Kill All Your Darlings, Folk Photography, The Other Paris,
and most recently, Maybe the People Would Be the Times. She
translated Felix Feneon's Novels in Three Lines and has written
introductions to several other NYRB Classics, including Classic
Crimes by William Roug-head and Pedigree by Georges Simenon. A
frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, she teaches
writing and the history of photography at Bard College.
Alex Andriesse's stories, essays, and poems have appeared in
Granta, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Prodigal, and Literary
Imagination. He has translated several works from Italian and
French, including Roberto Bazlen's Notes Without a Text and Other
Writings and Fran ois-Rene de Chateaubriand's Memoirs from Beyond
the Grave, 1768-1800 (an NYRB Classic). He is an associate editor
at New York Review Books.
“The latest translated edition of The Right to Be Lazy contains
essays that broaden the scope of Lafargue as a critical thinker
beyond the piece of agitprop he remains most famous for writing.
These include a brilliant piece of Marxist literary criticism avant
la lettre on the oeuvre of Victor Hugo, as well as a sketch of his
memories of his father-in-law that provides insights into Marx’s
lesser-known intellectual pursuits... The clarion call of The Right
to Be Lazy remains, however, the contribution of Lafargue’s that is
still capable of inspiring a provocation, asking us to inquire what
our days would look like if more of our time was truly ours.”
—Clinton Williamson, The Nation
“What makes Lafargue’s case for leisure distinctive is that he
unapologetically endorses hedonistic idleness.” —Matt McManus,
Jacobin
“Lafargue’s mordant approach is still effective 140 years
later.” —Lily Meyer, The Atlantic
“[T]he fact that things didn’t turn out as Lafargue hoped. . . .
takes nothing away from the cogency, the sparkle, the sheer fun of
The Right to Be Lazy.” —Mitch Abidor, Jewish Currents
“These piercing essays from socialist Lafargue offer a valuable
window into early Marxist thinking. . . . these pieces speak to the
present moment, when pandemic-related disruptions have provoked
reconsiderations of where, how, and why people work. Readers will
relish this incendiary blast from the past.” —Publishers Weekly
“The writing is vivid, pointed, hilarious. To paraphrase Elizabeth
Bishop, Lafargue is scathing, but cheerful.” —Michael Autrey,
Booklist
“With scathing wit, Lafargue takes aim at the ideological
underpinnings of late-stage capitalism. . . . A sly, irreverent
sibling to The Communist Manifesto, Lafargue’s argument against our
willing servitude to what we’d now call hustle culture and
growth-at-all-costs is as trenchant and necessary as the day it was
written, if not more so.” —David Wright, Library Journal
"The writing is vivid, pointed, hilarious. To paraphrase Elizabeth
Bishop, Lafargue is scathing, but cheerful.” — Michael
Autrey, Booklist
"[Lafargue's] ideas are even more relevant to today's enslaved
societies than they were when they were first written." —Tom
Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler
"The Right to Be Lazy points explicitly to the ridiculousness of
our clamoring to work the hardest; to prove ourselves the best and
most tireless." —Garth Miró, Southwest Review
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