Robert Musil 'The Man Without Qualities'

[Richard Barrett]

The Man Without Qualities is very important to me. I think of its form as musical rather than plot-oriented, and its unfinishedness is part of that form, as it seems to asymptotically approach the beginning of the First World War - the only possible "ending" would be for everything to freeze in place just before the assassination in Sarajevo, but one can imagine that as readily as reading it. I've only read it all through once but I find it enlightening to dip randomly into it now and again.

I haven't read The Sleepwalkers but The Death of Virgil seems to me quite powerful. I wasn't aware of its effect on Colin Davis, but it was central to the work of the French composer Jean Barraqué, who found in it the seeds of most of his major works. I would describe it more as a novel-sized poem than a novel as such, which has implications for how it might best be read (very slowly!).

[Conchis]

In one of his late Diaries, Simon Gray mentions the difficulties of reading Musil: he gives up and becomes absorbed in Stefan Zweig's Beware Of Pity, instead.

[vinteuil]

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... Zweig's 'Beware of Pity' is indeed pretty magical - and a far easier read than the Musil.

There is something about the extraordinary deliquescence of the K-und-K Empire which seems to have engendered a whole phalanx of marvellous works of literature...


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[Richard Barrett]

There is something about the extraordinary deliquescence of the K-und-K Empire which seems to have engendered a whole phalanx of marvellous works of literature...

... not to mention music, and insights into the subconscious, and last but not least one murderous dictator...

Do you know Janik and Toulmin's fascinating book Wittgenstein's Vienna? From the blurb: "The central figure in this study of a crumbling society that gave birth to the modern world is Wittgenstein, the brilliant and gifted young thinker. With others, including Freud, Viktor Adler, and Arnold Schoenberg, he forged his ideas in a classical revolt against the stuffy, doomed, and moralistic lives of the old regime. As a portrait of Wittgenstein, the book is superbly realized; it is even better as a portrait of the age, with dazzling and unusual parallels to our own confused society." Highly recommended.

[muzzer]

Yes, great book. Such a fascinating era, an endless source of culture.

[waldo]

Interesting thread.........I've been reading The Man without Qualities off and on for years. I'm still some way from finishing it, but it is not easy to say why I haven't managed so far. Everytime I read it, I have the same feeling, which is that it is tremendously funnny and also more interesting than any other book. Then, after a few chapters, I move on to something else.........

The reading of big hard books - it's a strange business. I run straight through some ( like Proust), and struggle to read two pages of others. I've never managed more than about ten pages of any Virginia Woolf, for instance, and they're quite slim..........Just to name a few others I've had dealings with: JR by William Gaddis. I've been reading that for about fifteen years. Look up a preview on Amazon if you want to see what it reads like. Hard doesn't begin to describe it. It's like being drowned, over and over again. (Viritually no prose: just dialogue from unnamed characters). But I have managed to get quite a lot of enjoyment out of it, too. As a novel, it is surely on the outermost limits of comprehensibility. I turn to it about once a year, when I'm sick of everything else. Another one: The Tunnel by William Gass. I'm still banging my head against the first chapter of that.........but I feel attracted to it, for some reason, so I will try again one of these days.

[vinteuil]

The reading of big hard books - it's a strange business.

"It is hardly an exaggeration to say that One of Our Conquerors is the most difficult novel in English to read, given that Finnegans Wake remains an inevitable exception... " That opening sentence of the introduction, plus the fact that the book in the second-hand shop was going for £2-75, was enough to get me salivating... Have you tried it? Here are the opening paras to give a taste -

CHAPTER I
ACROSS LONDON BRIDGE

A gentleman, noteworthy for a lively countenance and a waistcoat to match it, crossing London Bridge at noon on a gusty April day, was almost magically detached from his conflict with the gale by some sly strip of slipperiness, abounding in that conduit of the markets, which had more or less adroitly performed the trick upon preceding passengers, and now laid this one flat amid the shuffle of feet, peaceful for the moment as the uncomplaining who have gone to Sabrina beneath the tides. He was unhurt, quite sound, merely astonished, he remarked, in reply to the inquiries of the first kind helper at his elbow; and it appeared an acceptable statement of his condition. He laughed, shook his coat-tails, smoothed the back of his head rather thoughtfully, thankfully received his runaway hat, nodded bright beams to right and left, and making light of the muddy stigmas imprinted by the pavement, he scattered another shower of his nods and smiles around, to signify, that as his good friends would wish, he thoroughly felt his legs and could walk unaided. And he was in the act of doing it, questioning his familiar behind the waistcoat amazedly, to tell him how such a misadventure could have occurred to him of all men, when a glance below his chin discomposed his outward face. ’Oh, confound the fellow!’ he said, with simple frankness, and was humorously ruffled, having seen absurd blots of smutty knuckles distributed over the maiden waistcoat.

His outcry was no more than the confidential communication of a genial spirit with that distinctive article of his attire. At the same time, for these friendly people about him to share the fun of the annoyance, he looked hastily brightly back, seeming with the contraction of his brows to frown, on the little band of observant Samaritans; in the centre of whom a man who knew himself honourably unclean, perhaps consequently a bit of a political jewel, hearing one of their number confounded for his pains, and by the wearer of a superfine dashing-white waistcoat, was moved to take notice of the total deficiency of gratitude in this kind of gentleman’s look and pocket. If we ask for nothing for helping gentlemen to stand upright on their legs, and get it, we expect civility into the bargain. Moreover, there are reasons in nature why we choose to give sign of a particular surliness when our wealthy superiors would have us think their condescending grins are cordials."

[waldo]

Dear Christ. That is hard going........

[muzzer]

No, that's new to me. But I'll see your Meredith and raise you William Gaddis.....

[eighthobstruction]

....I took vinteuils rec' of Journey by Moonlight : Antal Szerb....enjoyed it mostly; thoroughly....thought at the beginning that it was going to be just one of those inter-war decadent young bourgeoisie go around Europe and generally bitch....but it was much more than that - a clever take on people (m/c people of course), character, psychology....have to say that the entrance of w/c people (of course) gave a bit of a kick to the story....

[jayne lee wilson]

....I took vinteuils rec' of Journey by Moonlight : Antal Szerb....enjoyed it mostly; thoroughly....thought at the beginning that it was going to be just one of those inter-war decadent young bourgeoisie go around Europe and generally bitch....but it was much more than that - a clever take on people (m/c people of course), character, psychology....has to say that the entrance of w/c people (of course) gave a bit of a kick to the story....

One of my most beloved books! That unbearable lightness of being about it.....
Such a wonderful last paragraph - and a last line to remind yourself of, when things get a bit grim...

[muzzer]

I took the same recommendation, and echo you both. Marvellous novel. Thank you vinteuil, much appreciated.

[richardfinegold]

Just returned from Germany and have read the first 300 pages or so. It's engrossing but not a casual read. I've ordered volume 2.

[Conchis]

Interesting thread.........I've been reading The Man without Qualities off and on for years. I'm still some way from finishing it, but it is not easy to say why I haven't managed so far. Everytime I read it, I have the same feeling, which is that it is tremendously funnny and also more interesting than any other book. Then, after a few chapters, I move on to something else.........

The reading of big hard books - it's a strange business. I run straight through some ( like Proust), and struggle to read two pages of others. I've never managed more than about ten pages of any Virginia Woolf, for instance, and they're quite slim..........Just to name a few others I've had dealings with: JR by William Gaddis. I've been reading that for about fifteen years. Look up a preview on Amazon if you want to see what it reads like. Hard doesn't begin to describe it. It's like being drowned, over and over again. (Viritually no prose: just dialogue from unnamed characters). But I have managed to get quite a lot of enjoyment out of it, too. As a novel, it is surely on the outermost limits of comprehensibility. I turn to it about once a year, when I'm sick of everything else. Another one: The Tunnel by William Gass. I'm still banging my head against the first chapter of that.........but I feel attracted to it, for some reason, so I will try again one of these days.

If you happen to be a heterosexual male, you are not the audience that Virginia Woolf was writing for. She had no interest in you, your opinions, or your existence.

I did read To The Lighthouse once, as an act of self-punishment. It's a short book, but it took me about a month to get through it.

[umslopogaas]

Yes, I have read 'The Man Without Qualities,' in the Panther pb translation, and it is a very fine,very long novel. I have also read 'Auto Da Fe' by Elias Canetti in the english translation, of course. This is an interesting thread, I must now go to bed but comments on those books would be very welcome.

My own interest at the moment is the novels of Joseph Conrad, esp. 'Heart of Darkness'.