English edition.Das Kapitalis a groundbreaking work of economic analysis, butalso an unfinished literary masterpiece which, with its multi-layered structure, can be read as a Gothic novel, a Victorian melodrama, a Greek tragedy or a Swiftian satire. Francis Wheen,The Guardian.Though he died in 1883, Karl Marx'sDas Kapital, the Bible of the working class, has been the book that most shaped twentieth-century history.His theories divided much of the world into two blocs, one embracing communism and the other fearing it, and cast a shadow into the twenty-first century.Although Marx writes as a philosopher and economist presenting an analysis of an economic system, the book is surprisingly readable. It reads like a Gothic novel whose heroes are enslaved and consumed by the monster they created.