Capital: Volume I

What can you say about such a book? I spent at least six months reading it, it's not an easy one, but that said, it isn't as cryptic as many people seem to think. If you have, like myself, been working for wages your whole life, then you'll find countless things here you already know to be true in life (in the capitalist society), although you probably haven't been able to put your finger on them by yourself. Marx was writing to workers, he wanted Capital to be used as a manual in the struggle to free the proletariat. It's something completely different than what I expected the book be, and in a very positive sense so. As a companion to reading this, I heartily recommend David Harvey's "Reading Marx's Capital", it's provides insight to the more difficult passages, as well as providing historical and political background.And the translation is really, really good and readable. I'm a native Finn, and I tried reading the Capital in Finnish at first, but the Finnish translation was so bad and felt so cryptic, that I changed to this Penguin Classics edition, and it's true: it read a lot better than the one in my native language! I also have researched into the translation's critical quality, and have learned from many very respected sources that it's supposed to be very good, too.

This (in)famous book needs no introduction, it is a masterpiece of historic research and economic thinking. As an economist, I appreciate Marx' attention for the basics, which are too often taken for granted. He's a smart and witty writer, but he also has done an enormous effort to gather so many detailed discussions of labour conditions and a thorough reading of economic theory at the time. When you go through the text, make sure not to skip the savvy footnotes: this is referencing as it should be.

A really hard read.

Marx was a giant of political economy, grappling with the massive spectre of maturing capitalism. This work is the culmination of intense research and is a revelation for anyone struggling to make sense of the capitalist system. Marx was also a revolutionary activist, and this work serves as a learned critique of a system sowing the seeds of its own destruction and that of humanity itself.

Came in good condition. Heavy read.