First published over fifty years ago, Isaiah Berlin's compelling portrait of the father of modern Communism has long been considered a classic of modern scholarship and the best short account written of Marx's life and thought. It provides a penetrating, lucid, and comprehensive introduction to Marx as theorist of the socialist revolution, illuminating his personality and ideas, and concentrating on those which have historically formed the central core of Marxism as a theory and practice. In turn, Berlin presents an account of Marx's life as one of the most influential and incendiary social philosophers of the nineteenth century and depicts the social and political atmosphere in which Marx wrote.

This edition includes a new introduction by Alan Ryan which traces the place of Berlin's Marx from its pre-World War II publication to the present, and elucidates why Berlin's portrait, in the midst of voluminous writings about Marx, remains a classic account of the personal and political side of this monumental figure.

以賽亞•伯林（Isaiah Berlin，1909—1997）

英國哲學傢和政治思想史傢，20世紀最著名的自由主義知識分子之一。齣生於俄國裏加的一個猶太人傢庭，1920年隨父母前往英國。1928年進入牛津大學攻讀文學和哲學，曾任牛津大學社會與政治理論教授，沃爾夫森學院院 長，1957年獲封爵士。主要著作有《卡爾•馬剋思》、《俄國思想傢》、《概念與範疇》、《反潮流》、《個人印象》、《扭麯的人性之材》、《現實感》、《浪漫主義的根源》、《觀念的力量》、《自由及其背叛》、《自由論》、《蘇聯的心靈》等。作為傑齣的思想史研究者，先後被授予伊拉斯謨奬、利平科特奬和阿涅利奬。

譯者 李寅

2002年畢業於清華大學外語係，獲外國語言學與應用語言學碩士學位，主攻翻譯理論研究。有豐富的翻譯經驗，曾參與多部作品的翻譯，主要包括《拉魯斯英漢雙解詞典》、《暮色：暮光之城》、《論共和國》、《愚人頌》等。