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Title: The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails
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| The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage Expansive Literature | | 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 provocateur around whom the plot and characters revolve. We are given numerous outstanding characters, the graceful yet tormented Diotima, her lovers Arnheim and General Tuzzi, a mysterious maid named Rachel, her lover Solomon, and an intriguing serial killer on death row named Moosbrugger. Musil has brilliantly delineated the social layers of imperial Austria, and he throws us into a culture marked by petty megalomania and pseudo-profundities. Much of the novel is a funny satire of a culture on the decline; it is also a philosophical dialogue between diverging antitheses. Ulrich is a man looking for an age of spiritual purity free from the burden of `rationalism.' Like the novels of Thomas Mann, `The Man Without Qualities' is as much a book about ideas as it is a narrative in itself. This may leave many readers a bit cold. However, Musil's command over a canvas of such an immense scale has insured his place as one of the 20th centuries finest writers. | | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage A clever work, but very long and boring | | I agree with Linda's comments... very clever book, but very very boring... if you wanna a book that we'll influence your way of thinking, try "The Picture of Dorian Gray"... and you'll get "more influence/page" | | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage spectacular and profound | Musil's book is one of the twentieth century's two masterworks-- the other being Proust's "A La Recherche." Musil and Proust are the Modernist embodiment of Adorno's dictum that the conceptually challenging artwork must also necessarily be aesthetically radical.
Musil's novel, written from at once the center (Europe) and the margins (post-World War One Austria) of the early Twentieth century, is the story of Ulrich, a brilliant young mathematician who observes Austrian high society on the eve of the First World War. Under the pretext of planning a huge anniversary party for the King, society gathers in one Diotima's salon. Musil's narrator here has good fun looking at the ideologies and social pretensions of the upper classes. Austra becomes "Kakania," and the idealistic Diotima a parody of Socrates' interlocutor in The Symposium.
Parallel to this social story is Ulrich's "inner transformation." As Ulrich becomes more and more cynical about, and detached from, the increasingly bizarre social world, he begins to undergo a transformation of mind, and to this end, moves at the end of Volume I into retreat from the world to pursue a "mystical union" of mind with his twin sister.
Musil's book-- like Proust's, and like Richardson's "Clarissa"-- takes on all themes. From social decay, inner transformation, the meaning of science and art, political satire, the dangers of technology, love, spiritual questions (here refreshingly and presciently free from being couched in Big Religions' terms) and plain old human longing, Musil deals with them all. And, like Proust and Richardson, Musil's story is ultimately a dialectic: the twin poles of social and individual transformation would, ideally, wind closer together until they fuse into one. In Proust's book this fusion is implied (it is the blending of author and narrator after the story's end) while in Richardson the synthesis is functional, but dead (Clarissa's coffin). Musil never finished his novel, perhaps fittingly-- WWI would destroy all remaining dreams of fusing European political idealism and the humanist spiritualism of the early 20th century, similar to how, seventy years later, Krzysztof Kieslowski's pan-Eurpoean vision of his "La Double Vie de Veronique" would look surreal and syrupy, destroyed by images from the Bosnian war in the mid-'90s.
Musil's writing is strangely effective even in translation. The narrator's sly sense of humour comes across pretty decently here, and the translator manages to make the book at times out-loud laughing funny.
This is essential reading. The reader who wants Big Ideas-- in the line of Proust, Richardson, Pynchon, Melville and Murakami-- will enjoy this work. | | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage Europe prior to the Great War | Set in 1913 in a country near Austria-Hungary in the period just prior to World War I, this massive, two volume novel, features Ulrich, the supposed "man without qualities," who take 1 year off just to observe people who help make up his environment. Forming the backdrop of the novel are preparations for the Parallel Campaign, which will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Franz Joseph's assention to the Austrian throne. The sponsors of this event, who hope to spotlight the achievements of Austria and reach some form of peace and understanding with the disperate groups that make up the Austria-Hungary Empire, never seem to agree how best to get the festivities off square one. The Germans feel shunted aside and make their extreme dissatisfactions known to everyone. One of the major characters of the novel is a wealthy German businessman who inspires love and admiration from some of the female characters and jealousy, mistrust and contempt from Ulrich and some of the other male characters.
"The Man Without Qualities" works best as a work showing Europe in a transitional period prior to the fall of the various kingdoms and empires of Europe and just before the rise of Naziism. Musil's characters go into great detail discussing the many political, economic and social philosphies swirling around Europe at that time and these often reflect the relationships of the various and motley individuals that make up the novel. These include Ulrich's cousin, Diotima, who loves to give parties for the prominent in society, her husband who is a petty government official who is severely lacking in imagination, Ulrich's musically gifted married friends, Clarisse, a nervous and somewhat hysterical woman, and Walter, a weakling who is very jealous of Ulrich. While oftentimes the clash of ideas and philosophies can make an incredibly engrossing read, the novel can often bogs down in them and become awfully tiresome.
The second volume introduces Ulrich's sister, and from what I have read, she helps to bring a completely different and unforgettable dimension to his life. | | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage A Scathing Indictment of a Lost People | The Man Without Qualities is about nothing. Nothing happens; there is nor growth in any of the characters, there are no decisions made, there are no actions taken. The main characters pontificate, discourse and expostulate endlessly. They think long and deep. Everyone seems steeped in metaphysics, philosophy, literature, dialectics, etc. But nobody does a damn thing. There are at least three relationships that are not consummated. Even when there is sex, it seems disconnected from the "pseudo reality" that is the milieu everyone moves in. Everyone is planning for a grand jubilee for the Emperor Franz Joseph, but after incessant meetings, no one can decide how to proceed.
The only character who seems to do anything is the sexual psychopath, Moosbrugger, who is a serial murderer of women. This is a very challenging book to read. You have to concentrate or you'll find that you've read several paragraphs or pages without knowing what you've just read. The Man Without Qualities is the ultimate "novel of ideas" but the irony is that it seems to be contemptuous of ideas if they do not bear fruit through the actions of decisive men and women of action. For a person or a culture without qualities, ideas are a paralyzing narcotic.
| | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage Product Description | | 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 remained unpublished during his lifetime. | | The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by Vintage Amazon.com | | This intriguing landmark of modernism from Austrian writer Robert Musil has been newly translated from the German by Sophie Wilkins and re-edited in a textual overhaul. This new edition includes portions of the author's original manuscripts that have never been published before. Though an imposing edifice of writing, devotees of literary modernism and anyone interested in the decline of the Austrian empire must read this sweeping, comic take on life in pre-Great War Vienna. The story of Ulrich, the man without qualities himself, is continued in a second volume, The Man Without Qualities: Into the Millenium,From the Posthumous Papers. |
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