Within living memory, indeed, the writings of Marx were studied like religious texts. That is why Stalin liquidated the editors of the Marx-Engels Historisch-Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Rjazanov and Adoratskij, as their work threatened to reveal that Marx had feet of clay. Sperber reminds us that strenuous efforts were made, both in his lifetime and for at least a century later, to conceal the fact that he had fathered an illegitimate son by his maid. The real scandal here, though, was the fact that the maid, Lenchen Demuth, was exploited throughout a life of unpaid service to the Marx family. She and her son Fred, whom he never acknowledged, were the only proletarians for whom Marx had personal responsibility. He failed to live up to it, just as he failed the workers and humanity in general.