The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails
by Robert Musil
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I must admit that I experienced smugness when carrying around this weighty early twentieth century Austrian novel earlier this summer, while passing through airports where everyone from naval cadets to septuagenarians were Pottering. If you dislike "closure," this is the ultimate novel. At 1500 pages (spread over two volumes), it remained uncompleted at Musil's death And yet, somehow, it is worth it. This is a wry portrayal of Austrian society in the moments before World War I, set...more
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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. I'm l...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who has the patience to finish it
I don't know if there are other translations out there but mine wasn't that great.
Anyway it was a sludge. Musil goes on and on. I think if his prose (or maybe just the translation) was better it would be fantastic but instead it reads like, well, Kant or Nietzche. There is hardly any dialogue or action and whole chapters will go by that consist entirely of him explaining the societal causes behind the reason one character reacted in a certain way.
That said it was really great and I enjoy...more
Anyway it was a sludge. Musil goes on and on. I think if his prose (or maybe just the translation) was better it would be fantastic but instead it reads like, well, Kant or Nietzche. There is hardly any dialogue or action and whole chapters will go by that consist entirely of him explaining the societal causes behind the reason one character reacted in a certain way.
That said it was really great and I enjoy...more
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Read in April, 2006
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
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
people with a long attention span
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
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Read in June, 2001
As a novel of ideas where plot is decidedly of secondary importance, the book stands or falls on the cogency and originality of those ideas. Unfortunately, like much modern Germanic philosophy, the ideas are bogged down in a miasma of overly complicated and rather incoherent verbiage. The book's redeeming quality is the quite interesting assemblage of quirky characters that emerge from the murk.
Couldn't finish Vol. 2 because the ratio of incoherent philosophizing to interesting character...more
Couldn't finish Vol. 2 because the ratio of incoherent philosophizing to interesting character...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
People like Ryan Kleeberger
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.
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Mind you I never finished this (itself unfinished) book, and I've heard that there are problems with the translation. Beyond a few bits of true wisdom in the first two or three hundred pages, this is a book about an indecisive upper middle class guy in Austria being... indecisive ... for thousands of pages.
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Read in February, 2004
recommends it for:
Someone who wants to get lost for a few months.
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.
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I once asked a barbarian friend of mine what would a person be if we took away every one of his qualities. My friend's reply was: nothing. Robert Musil must have had the same question in mind when he wrote his masterpiece, The Man Without Qualities.....
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Read in May, 2008
Here we go. A huge, relatively unknown novel; compared with Proust, recommended to me via a paper on schizophrenia I had read. Musil is little known, but from what I have read so far, go for it! Especially if you are laid up for six months or so!
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Read in September, 2005
recommended to Lou by:
jeff d
Possibly my all-time favorite book. This is the third time I've read it, and its a great translation and there is still plenty to pick up new from it.
(also read in june 2002, and february 1999)
(also read in june 2002, and february 1999)
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recommends it for:
patient mean people
It's a very, very, very funny book, and meaner than anything I've read since Vanity Fair. I am bracing for the impact which is maybe 500 pages away.
It can't end well. Tra la.
It can't end well. Tra la.
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Read in July, 2007
It is only occasionally tedious. It is often very funny. Maybe when I finish it, I can live without reading Joyce and Proust.
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3 comments
Arguably the greatest literary work of the twentieth century. it does not get enough attention and it should be read by everyone i love.
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Utterly profound and inspiring. Provoked many nights of deep thoughts and contemplation. Not to be taken lightly, it's an intense ride.
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Read in December, 2007
Smart Smart Smart! Neitzche Nietzche Neecha! This book teaches people how to keep secrets. An inner life is very important.
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I'm only 20 pages or so into this. Very engaging so far ... it was pitched to me as a German Ulysses. We'll see!
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this is a great big slog through many many many fantatic pages... i'll get there, but there's no rush.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
proust fans
very richy worded, the detail of his perceptions are phenomenal and entirely absorbing ...
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