Eleanor Marx
English writer, translator, activist, and daughter of Karl Marx (1855–1898)
Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Marx-Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was an English writer, translator, activist, and the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. A key proponent of socialism, she translated her father's writings and helped spread his philosophical ideas.
Additionally, she worked as a literary translator. She is particularly noted for her 1886 translation of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, which she introduced to the English-speaking world and became a global bestseller. She also translated several of Henrik Ibsen's plays, including An Enemy of the People in 1888 and The Lady from the Sea in 1890.
In March 1898, after discovering that her partner Edward Aveling had secretly married the previous year, she poisoned herself at the age of 43 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery alongside her father and other members of the Marx family.
Biography
Early years
Eleanor Marx was born in London on 16 January 1855, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Karl Marx and his wife Jenny von Westphalen. She was called "Tussy" by her family from a young age. She showed an early interest in politics, even writing to political figures during her childhood. The hanging of the "Manchester Martyrs" when she was twelve, for example, horrified her and shaped her lifelong sympathy for the Fenians.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61412. VIAF identifies the subject as 252974120. The Library of Congress control number is n50029939. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1855, 1898, 1886 and 1888.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eleanor Marx” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.