Engels was often described as a man with a very strong libido and not much restraint. He had many lovers and despite his condemnation of prostitution as "exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie" he also occasionally paid for sex. In 1846 he wrote to Marx: "If I had an income of 5000 francs I would do nothing but work and amuse myself with women until I went to pieces. If there were no Frenchwomen, life wouldn't be worth living. But so long as there are grisettes, well and good!" At a Workers' Union meeting in Brussels, Engels's friend turned rival Moses Hess accused Engels of raping his wife Sibylle. Engels vehemently denied the charge, writing in a letter to Marx that Sibylle's "rage with me is unrequited love, pure and simple."Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (Hachette, 2011).
Engels was often described as a man with a very :strong libido and not much restraint. He had many lovers and despite his condemnation of prostitution as "exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie" he also occasionally paid for sex. In 1846 he wrote to Marx: "If I had an income of 5000 francs I would do nothing but work and amuse myself with women until I went to pieces. If there were no Frenchwomen, life wouldn't be worth living. But so long as there are grisettes, well and good!" At a Workers' Union meeting in Brussels, Engels's friend turned rival Moses Hess accused Engels of raping his wife ,Sibylle. Engels vehemently denied the charge, writing in a letter to Marx that Sibylle's "rage with me is unrequited love, pure and simple."Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution (Hachette, 2011).