“In capitalist society work is the cause of all intellectual degeneracy, of all organic deformity.” Paul Lafargue’s The Right to Be Lazy spells out with unrivalled clarity the damage inflicted by the myth that endless work is morally virtuous. Presenting an inspiring vision of social equality and of individual human fulfilment, Lafargue’s text remains one of the most powerful denunciations of “economic prejudices” ever written.