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Available
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Publication
Vintage (1996), Paperback, 752 pages
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in two elegant volumes--is the first to present Musil's complete text, including material that remained unpublished during his lifetime.
User reviews
LibraryThing member dan4gabriel
This book was aptly described as one of the best three books of the last century.It took me almost a year to read, about an hour a day, the two volumes and posthumous papers, copious note-taking and ample reflecting. Of course a breezier approach is possible, but if one tries to read it as slowly
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as the author has wrote it, the paragraphs release a bouquet that's as a Mouton Rotschild 82. I would say energetically that this masterpiece builds character... Literature at its most educative and thought-provoking. Its ambitious scope spans from politics to economics, science to art, morality to justice. Musil was probably too much a philosopher to decide on writing and too much of a writer to decide on philosophy. The architecture of his project would probably have reached the dimensions of a modern operating system, like the 45 million lines of code in Windows XP if death wouldn't have stopped him in 1942. The posthumous papers are also highly interesting and would have made for more distilled quiet Kant-Clausewitz-Mill sagesse. There is no facil classification of the book, as his experience as scholar, his science background, military experience-first as decorated officer then as military advisor-all catalyze the whole and then there are the synergy benefits of the combined ensemble. There is no apology for complexity. The style is of a teutonic Socrates who approaches topics and sends his Mann ohne Eigenschaften, Ulrich, to relativize their moral basis, to criticize the diaphanously shallow bourgeoisie, the decadent empire, the sclerotic monarchy, the empirically stultified military, the epistemiologically cavalier scientists, the "precieuses" ladies of the Viennese salons. Ulrich is probably actually the man who is so acutely aware of the bias and corruption in the proclaimed morality that he is resigned to the stronghold of his own power, intellectual integrity. His author nominated for a Nobel, the book remains a monolithical foundation for any durable library and will give perenially its reader that sensation of elegant joy that time and age are powerless to take away. Show Less
LibraryThing member GarySeverance
Robert Musil’s two-volume unfinished novel published in 1952 and 1978 is remarkably relevant to the current Zeitgeist in the United States. The central character Ulrich is a man without qualities, a person indifferent to his middle class position and abilities. But he is described by a friend as
Ulrich’s indifference is made possible by the lifelong efforts of the careful work of his middle class social diplomat father. The family’s financial advantages allow him to begin a career in science, specifically mathematics, with theoretical rather than applied goals. Ulrich has some success as a mathematician, but sees no future in what is nothing more than a social group of like-minded theorists. As a result of his father’s connections and his own personal charisma, Ulrich is recognized for general intellect and charm by the monarchy and upper middle class in Austria. He is appointed to a leadership position on a national committee charged with the task of developing a theme, a slogan that will unite Austria in pride during the seventieth jubilee of the Emperor Franz Joseph I. Because of his prescience and cynicism, he realizes that the group has an impossible task. The future of Austria does not involve celebration of the old, but rather radical social change targeting the Jews as scapegoats and the empowering of special interest groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
We can see the parallels between the setting of the novel, Ulrich’s fictional Austrian city-state Kakania, and the United States as we face an economic meltdown and a change of leadership in the White House. We can anticipate the inevitable cycle of change, but who will benefit? What leaders will gain support in the new era of our undercivilized culture: the proponents of humanity and tradition or those of Realpolitic based on practicality and power? Musil’s novel puts the reader in the unique position of identifying with Ulrich, a self made person without intrinsically valuable qualities, living in a disintegrating nation. If we, like Ulrich, possess superficial and limiting personal qualities and are indifferent to them, we will be reliant on the intervention and restriction of government in our daily lives. The result may be that we have no enduring and free culture to help us understand and maintain the values of the human person.
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consisting of qualities without a man, a cynical poser hiding behind general intellectual and social skills. Ulrich is afforded prescience from beyond “the break” as Musil’s contemporary Thomas Mann described the Great War. He realizes the traditional world of art and culture in kingly and bureaucratic Austria (fictional Kakania) is on the brink of destruction due to advances of the middle class in commerce and science. All that is needed for the old world to be tipped into the abyss is the identification of a scapegoat by intellectually deficient but charismatic leaders and the mobilization of diverse and self-interested ethnic and national subgroups. This seems to be our ‘ghost of the time’ in America in 2008.Ulrich’s indifference is made possible by the lifelong efforts of the careful work of his middle class social diplomat father. The family’s financial advantages allow him to begin a career in science, specifically mathematics, with theoretical rather than applied goals. Ulrich has some success as a mathematician, but sees no future in what is nothing more than a social group of like-minded theorists. As a result of his father’s connections and his own personal charisma, Ulrich is recognized for general intellect and charm by the monarchy and upper middle class in Austria. He is appointed to a leadership position on a national committee charged with the task of developing a theme, a slogan that will unite Austria in pride during the seventieth jubilee of the Emperor Franz Joseph I. Because of his prescience and cynicism, he realizes that the group has an impossible task. The future of Austria does not involve celebration of the old, but rather radical social change targeting the Jews as scapegoats and the empowering of special interest groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
We can see the parallels between the setting of the novel, Ulrich’s fictional Austrian city-state Kakania, and the United States as we face an economic meltdown and a change of leadership in the White House. We can anticipate the inevitable cycle of change, but who will benefit? What leaders will gain support in the new era of our undercivilized culture: the proponents of humanity and tradition or those of Realpolitic based on practicality and power? Musil’s novel puts the reader in the unique position of identifying with Ulrich, a self made person without intrinsically valuable qualities, living in a disintegrating nation. If we, like Ulrich, possess superficial and limiting personal qualities and are indifferent to them, we will be reliant on the intervention and restriction of government in our daily lives. The result may be that we have no enduring and free culture to help us understand and maintain the values of the human person.
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LibraryThing member tayoulevy
this is an obligatory book if one is to understand modernity
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
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.
LibraryThing member charlie68
Not for the faint of heart, long winded and this is just volume one; and considering this a translation. the prose is excellent. Set in 1913 Vienna follows the story of Ulrich, the man without qualities, and his involvement in the Parallel Campaign. Exposes the depths of the rifts of society of
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that era, and by doing so echoes the rifts of our own. Show Less
LibraryThing member JRCornell
Set in Vienna on the eve of WWI, peopled with some of the most memorable characters in literature, this novel presents a profound, witty, and striking portrait of life as it dissects and tries to define the individual in the modern world.
Language
Original publication date
1930
Physical description
752 p.; 8.05 inches
ISBN
0679767878 / 9780679767879