Letter to Mrs Zadek, beginning of January 1890

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	January 1890

First published in Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 37, Moscow, 1965
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48

ENGELS TO MRS ZADEK

IN LONDON

[London, beginning of January, 1890] [Draft]

Dear Mrs Zadek,

We were both, Lenchen and I, as surprised as we were delighted when we received the beautiful pieces of handwork you so kindly sent us. It was surely too much for you to have sat down, your eyes being as troublesome as they are (and I know what that means from my own experience), and made such complicated things. And for that reason they will be all the more treasured. Lenchen is in absolute raptures over her fine warm skirt and, even though you may have flattered me a shade too much in regard to the smallness of my feet, I'm perfectly sure that the slippers and I will, on longer acquaintance, become most intimate friends. We both of us thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I hope your health permitted you to spend a happy 70th birthday surrounded by your dear ones; may we please send you our belated congratulations? This distinction still lies ahead of Lenchen and myself—in my case it actually falls this year. It is a peculiar decade in which to enter it.

With my kindest regards to you and Dr Zadek.

Very respectfully, Yours,

F. E.