As it happens, his magnum opus, "Das Kapital," was not published
until after 15 years of procrastination, fibbing and boasting about its
progress. When the weighty tome failed to elicit the explosive response
he anticipated, Marx compared himself to the hero of Balzac's "Unknown
Masterpiece," an artist who spends years refining and retouching a
portrait until it becomes nothing but a formless mass of color and
random lines. "Nothing. Nothing. After 10 years of work," the artist
cries.
-- Sylvia Nasar, "The First Marxist." Review of Karl Marx
A Life. by Francis Wheen, in New York Times Book Review
May 21, 2000.