Marx precis

Karl Marx's essay discusses historical events of France in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He begins with history of Napoleon's rule and leads up to Louis' overthrow of the French government. One of the more interesting quotes states, "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce" in the very beginning. I think here he is referring to Napoleon and Louis. Marx's writing gets confusing because he uses so many dates. Even though he often states the same year or date, numbers seem to fill the pages of the first half, causing confusion. He also overuses what could be a strong device: repetition. For example, the paragraph that spills from 603 to 604 repeats basically the same line over and over. I got the point the first three times; after that, I skipped to the next paragraph. This wouldn't have been such a bad thing, I guess, if he hadn't done it again, though to a lesser degree, on page 609. I think I actually saw it at least one more time, too, and it lessens the effect of repetition throughout his writing.