The Man without Qualities (1930-42; German: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) is a novel in three books by the Austrian novelist and essayist Robert Musil.
The main issue of this "story of ideas", which takes place in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy's last days, is the need to preserve order in a shaken world (never considering the fact that World War I was to begin in a couple of months).
Musil worked on his masterpiece for more than twenty...
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The Man without Qualities (1930-42; German: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) is a novel in three books by the Austrian novelist and essayist Robert Musil.
The main issue of this "story of ideas", which takes place in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy's last days, is the need to preserve order in a shaken world (never considering the fact that World War I was to begin in a couple of months).
Musil worked on his masterpiece for more than twenty years. He started in 1921 and spent the rest of his life writing it. When he died in 1942, the novel was not completed. The first two books were published in 1930, the last and unfinished one posthumously by his wife Martha in 1942. He worked on his novel almost every day, leaving his family in dire financial straits. The novel brought neither fame nor fortune to Musil or his family. This was one of the reasons why he felt bitter and unrecognized during the last two decades of his lifetime. The combination of material poverty and a multitude...
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