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The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails
Set in Vienna on the eve of World War I, this great novel of ideas tells the story of Ulrich, ex-soldier and scientist, seducer and skeptic, who finds himself drafted into the grandiose plans for the 70th jubilee of the Emperor Franz Josef. This new translation--published in two elegant volumes--is the first to present Musil's complete text, including material that remaine...more
Paperback, 725 pages
Published
December 9th 1996
by Vintage
(first published 1933)
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I finally finished volume 1 of this book on the first day of 2009. 730 pages, and I'm not entirely sure I could explain what, if anything, happens. Clearly, not many contemporary readers would enjoy the kind of experience this entails. My description below, written back in the summer of 2007 when I started reading it, pretty much holds. I will now add volume 2 to my "currently reading." Stay tuned for the review, which will probably be forthcoming somewhere around 2015...
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Endlessly awesome. Practically plotless and hence captures the imagination purely through its profundity of ideas. The possibilites that Musil postulates through the character of Ulrich are awe-inspiring--his attack on every single way we live our lives is shocking, yet completely reasonable--but ultimately, the abstractness of these solutions cannot uphold the corporeality of an actual human life, and despite the apparent overused and scarred nature of every path that seems to stretch out befor...more
Amongst the most influential and powerful fictions that I have read are those born from the Austro-Germanic experience amidst the cadaverous ruins of the First World War: Thomas Mann, Hermann Broch, Franz Kafka, Joseph Roth, and now Robert Musil. One of the biggest regrets in my reading life is not having become fluent in German—although the English translators have done a magnificent job of bringing this epoch of profound reflection and soaring imagination to the English language, I can only bu...more
Some books suck me in and I can't put them down until I've finished. Other books hang over my head like an incomplete homework assignment. This one started out like homework, but ended up as addicting as any great story. I believe I read this book over the course of a year and a half, picking it up and putting it down. The story didn't grab me at first, but I kept coming back for the great one-liners. This may be one of the most quotable novels I've ever read. In any case, it's a slow build, but...more
I have read some comments to the effect that Musil is not comparable to either Proust or Joyce. This is true. But only to the extent that Joyce and Proust are not comparable to each other either. Their common bond though is of course their incredible perspicacity and insight into the consequences of the modern age before anyone really knew what to make of it. Joyce gives us a perspective from the bottom of society, Proust from the bourgeoisie/middle class, and Musil from the upper (or at least w...more
I'm only about two hundred pages in, but this is without question one of the best books I've ever read. The author's sense of irony and keen, penetrating insight into things in general are delightful and uncanny. There are few authors whose voices have spoken to me this directly--in fact Nabokov's the only one who comes to mind at the moment.
I keep finding observations in this book that could easily be transposed to 2009 America, with only the names changed--points Musil makes about...more
I keep finding observations in this book that could easily be transposed to 2009 America, with only the names changed--points Musil makes about...more
In many ways I like it a lot. There is a lot the modern reader can relate to here. I especially like Ulrich's inability to act on anything because he sees the moral wrongs behind everything. What he calls passive resistance, which he compares to a work to rule action by a union, in his case amounts to doing nothing. He says that that is ok if it's like a prisoner waiting for the right opportunity to escape.
Meanwhile Arnheim, the bourgeois Prussian Jew, constantly acts in ways that ha...more
Meanwhile Arnheim, the bourgeois Prussian Jew, constantly acts in ways that ha...more
This is the type of novel in which the characters like to lecture each other, and the narrator (the worst character) is constantly lecturing you. Seldom is a subject mentioned for which the narrator doesn’t produce an exasperating mini-lesson. He wants to show us how things really are. There is an unpleasant (and unjustified) presumption of superiority behind such a tendency. The main character, the pouty Ulrich, is kind of like a sad replay of the “nihilist” in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, who ...more
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Kind of a stiff, gentrified Austrian Henry Miller. Ryan says it's brilliant and Ryan is brilliant so I guess it's brilliant. But as for now, I bow out at around two hundred pages. Maybe when I'm older and have given up drinking or rock and roll. The writing is very astute, the narrative, very witty. A trifle boring.
It's very long, and the characters generally refuse to do anything or to change in any way. Still this is as good as it gets for me... every page contains a great idea, or image, or a perfect sentence. Often all three coexist. The second volume is OK, but not really necessary.
This is an incredible series, one worth reading more than once. The characters are so unique and beautifully drawn. The language is lovely and the perspective on this time in history is very interesting.
It is only occasionally tedious. It is often very funny. Maybe when I finish it, I can live without reading Joyce and Proust.
La scrittura di Musil possiede un punto indefinibile, irraggiungibile ma centrale che è fatto di gelo,ghiaccio e distacco. Musil sembra vivere le donne come un mistero che si svela nel possederle. E' un essere sofferente,irraggiungibile, nella sua ricercata e dura lontananza dalle cose del mondo.
Terminata la lettura di questo libro si sente la mancanza delle riunioni in casa Tuzzi,con le luci accese che si possono vedere dalla strada. Manca un Ulrich che inaspettatamente arriva tardi e las...more
Terminata la lettura di questo libro si sente la mancanza delle riunioni in casa Tuzzi,con le luci accese che si possono vedere dalla strada. Manca un Ulrich che inaspettatamente arriva tardi e las...more
I went through a short phase of being obsessed with pre-WWI Austria when I read this. And also being obsessed with how haphazardly people are formed, probably because it was right after college when I was doing a lot of taking myself apart and putting myself back together again. It's probably a good book to be reading if you need to do that.
Some parts are just sort of entertaining comedy of manners type jabs at aristocratic, bourgeois, and military figures, and their pretentious att...more
Some parts are just sort of entertaining comedy of manners type jabs at aristocratic, bourgeois, and military figures, and their pretentious att...more
The relentlessly critical attitude of the protagonist results in a life in which all options have been deemed inadequate. As of page 200, the primary tension seems to be whether or not he can authentically resolve his remarkably accurate, if deflating, worldview with some appropriate extension into the world.
I'm really enjoying this so far. The main pleasure comes from following Ulrich's thoughts as he meets with reality; physical reality here is clearly secondary to the intellectual...more
I'm really enjoying this so far. The main pleasure comes from following Ulrich's thoughts as he meets with reality; physical reality here is clearly secondary to the intellectual...more
"İnsan artık bir ağacın altına uzanıp ayak başparmağı ve ikinci parmağı arasından gökyüzünü seyretmiyor, fakat bir şeyler yaratıyor; ayrıca becerikli olmak isteyen insanın aç kalmasına ve düşlere dalmasına izin yok; o, biftek yiyip yerinden kımıldamak zorunda." 119
"Bir kez olsun sürüklendiğim yerde kalmak istiyorum," 278
" ... ve hava, bir cümlenin bitiminde doğru yere konulmuş bir noktanın sessizliğiyle doluydu." 282
"Gerçekten de, ...more
"Bir kez olsun sürüklendiğim yerde kalmak istiyorum," 278
" ... ve hava, bir cümlenin bitiminde doğru yere konulmuş bir noktanın sessizliğiyle doluydu." 282
"Gerçekten de, ...more
Reading this book was the way I'd wrongly imagined reading Proust would be. That is, at the beginning it was engaging and interesting, and unlike anything I'd read. Then it started to get a little harder, but I still liked it a lot, and was enjoying myself. It has a mentally-ill felony offender! One of my favorite things! And his description of psychosis was much better and more accurate than most authors'. Anyway, at first it was exciting -- Vienna! Modernity! But then it got quite a bit less s...more
O primeiro e maior volume (843 págs.) já foi, entretanto já me encontro a ler o segundo volume com cerca de metade do tamanho (451 págs) e tenho a dizer que de facto este livro é uma grande obra não só em tamanho, mas como em qualidade.
Musil dedicou quase toda a sua vida na escrita deste livro e nunca o chegou a terminar, podemos mesmo compara-lo a um épico grego.
Fala das vida de Ulrich, um jovem Austríaco no ano de 1914, mesmo antes do início da I Guerra Mundial e aborda inúmeros te...more
Musil dedicou quase toda a sua vida na escrita deste livro e nunca o chegou a terminar, podemos mesmo compara-lo a um épico grego.
Fala das vida de Ulrich, um jovem Austríaco no ano de 1914, mesmo antes do início da I Guerra Mundial e aborda inúmeros te...more
The first volume of Robert Musil's magnificent opus `The Man Without Qualities,' is brilliant and intricate Prussian `a la recherche du temps perdu,' though without Proust's keen appreciation of the arts. This is an epic from the mind of a mathematician and a strict analytic philosopher who becomes ensconced in the aristocracy of Austro-Hungarian Empire in the years of its final disintegration leading up to the first World War. Ulrich is the man without qualities, the sharp minded observer and p...more
There are different kinds of funny. The category this book fits into includes having a smile on the face throughout, bursts of hilarity, and that serious use of comedy which reveals the absurdity of human behaviour. Written un the context of thickening fascist Europe, it's a remarkable mirror on life today. So easily the lusts of genitals, power and cruelty blend seamlessly with lofty idealisms. Entire schools of philosophy are ridiculed gently, or more accurately what is ridiculed is the nugato...more
FEB '08:
Wow, this is a great book, and I don't think I'm capable of explaining why that is. The critics compare it to Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past, but Robert Musil is so much less pompous and overbearing or earnest a writer than Joyce or Proust. He also seems like he's capable of distancing himself from the experiment and judging the readability of what he's done more than either of those other Modernist luminaries, so his writing stays tight and pleasurable throughout. ...more
Wow, this is a great book, and I don't think I'm capable of explaining why that is. The critics compare it to Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past, but Robert Musil is so much less pompous and overbearing or earnest a writer than Joyce or Proust. He also seems like he's capable of distancing himself from the experiment and judging the readability of what he's done more than either of those other Modernist luminaries, so his writing stays tight and pleasurable throughout. ...more
Slow reading, but worth it. Similar to Kafka's The Castle dealing with bureacracy. Focus on bourgeiose class and royalists planning to celebrate the 50th year of Emperor Franz Joseph's reign of the Austro-Hungarian War as Europe soon enters the Great War, irony, saracasm, and emerging anarchist groups with iron-willed reaction by the military. The author/narrator is caught up in the midst of all this awkwardedness.
(Only got to page 430) This book is extremely slow and repetitive. Nothing much happens in the book, and chapters at a time will be devoted to detailing the way the (approximately 5) characters think, and what they happen to be feeling at the time. The topic of how each character thinks is returned to repeatedly, which gives the book its repetitive feel. All that aside, it is a very good book for getting a wonderful feeling of the modernist movement in society. Additionally, you can see the...more
I could live within this voice for years.
above and beyond the beautiful and precise mapping of consciousness in this work, the writing, the syntax, the turns of phrase, the use of dependent clauses to shift our navigation of subjects are all humbling and inspiring to read.
the translator deserves to sleep well at night after this achievement.
Daniel Fulmer
added it
This is one of those GREAT books of modern times known as such and in the company of Jas Joyce Ulysses and Proust's Rembrance of Things Past. And like my experience with those two others I could not stay with this book. Maybe for the same reason: I never "felt" the characters were real people.
This book is absolutely fantastic. Both satirical and deadly serious, it is an historical novel set in pre-war Austria-Hungary; filled with the level of writer's omniscience you would only expect to find in something by Joyce--and without that author's cryptographic style.
Phew! This is a monster. A massive book of ideas. As Mann deals with his sanatorium, Musil approaches Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century, an ancient empire marching into oblivion. Encompasses thoughts of ideologies of the era.
On to Volume 2.
On to Volume 2.
Okay... Admittedly, I am some long months or years from my ability to read this in German, but I am excited to have found a handsome copy of this book today at AdobeBooks (which, sadly is under a rent squeeze, thus moribund). May we all attain!
will
added it
While a difficult read, only partly because of its length and density, this book is pretty much a masterpiece. It seems that nearly every chapter (and most are only 2-3 pp.) contains a breathtaking metaphor or an insight into human nature so exact and honest that I felt quite awed by the time I reached the end (and there's yet another volume half again as long). Musil's pre-WWI Austrian society is not so different from our own in terms of corruption and hypocrisy and he presents its flaws clearl...more
A bit weird, nothing happens much, although there's a serial killer named Moosbruger (?), plenty of satire and philosophical musings, that mid-European ennui. I loved it. All three volumes of it.
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Austrian writer.
He graduated military boarding school at Eisenstadt (1892-1894) and then Hranice, in that time also known as Mährisch Weißkirchen, (1894-1897). These school experiences are reflected in his first novel - The confusions of young Törless.
He served in army during World War I. When Austria became a part of the Third Reich in 1938, Musil left for exile in Switz...more
More about Robert Musil...
He graduated military boarding school at Eisenstadt (1892-1894) and then Hranice, in that time also known as Mährisch Weißkirchen, (1894-1897). These school experiences are reflected in his first novel - The confusions of young Törless.
He served in army during World War I. When Austria became a part of the Third Reich in 1938, Musil left for exile in Switz...more
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“The secret of a good librarian is that he never reads anything more of the literature in his charge than the title and the table of contents. Anyone who lets himself go and starts reading a book is lost as a librarian...He's bound to lose perspective.”
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“His appearance gives no clue to what his profession might be, and yet he doesn't look like a man without a profession either. Consider what he's like: He always knows what to do. He knows how to gaze into a woman's eyes. He can put his mind to any question at any time. He can box. He is gifted, strong-willed, open-minded, fearless, tenacious, dashing, circumspect—why quibble, suppose we grant him all those qualities—yet he has none of them! They have made him what he is, they have set his course for him, and yet they don't belong to him. When he is angry, something in him laughs. When he is sad, he is up to something. When something moves him, he turns against it. He'll always see a good side to every bad action. What he thinks of anything will always depend on some possible context—nothing is, to him, what it is: everything is subject to change, in flux, part of a whole, of an infinite number of wholes presumably adding up to a super-whole that, however, he knows nothing about. So every answer he gives is only a partial answer, every feeling an opinion, and he never cares what something is, only 'how' it is—some extraneous seasoning that somehow goes along with it, that's what interests him.”
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