All three Marx daughters loved the Victorian parlour game ‘Confessions’ – nowadays often known as the Proust Questionnaire – and in the mid-1860s invited their father to submit himself to interrogation. Here are his answers:
Your favourite virtue: |
Simplicity |
Your favourite virtue in man: |
Strength |
Your favourite virtue in woman: |
Weakness |
Your chief characteristic: |
Singleness of purpose |
Your idea of happiness: |
To fight |
Your idea of misery: |
Submission |
The vice you excuse most: |
Gullibility |
The vice you detest most: |
Servility |
Your aversion: |
Martin Tupper |
[popular Victorian author] |
|
Favourite occupation: |
Book-worming |
Favourite poet: |
Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Goethe |
Favourite prose-writer: |
Diderot |
Favourite hero: |
Spartacus, Kepler |
Favourite heroine: |
Gretchen |
Favourite flower: |
Daphne |
Red |
|
Favourite name: |
Laura, Jenny |
Favourite dish: |
Fish |
Favourite maxim: |
Nihil humani a me alienum puto |
[Nothing human is alien to me] |
|
Favourite motto: |
De omnibus dubitandum |
[Everything should be doubted] |