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Books

A Marxist in Ernest

Mark Neocleous reviews John Cowley’s book The Victorian Encounter with Marx: A Study of Ernest Belfort Bax.

One of my favourite titles for a book is Strange Communists I have Known by Betram Wolfe. What baffles me is why it is so short; the author clearly couldn’t have known many communists, since the communist movement has certainly thrown up more strange ones than the handful he discusses. Ernest Belfort Bax is undoubtedly a candidate for such a book, and the work under review suggests why. Bax cut a fine figure: a kind of English Rimbaud in his loosefitting, shaggy, flannel shirts with silk cravat, absent-minded, lost in idle speculation. Unfortunately this is reflected in many of his ideas.

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