Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails by ROBERT MUSIL ISBN: 0-679-76787-8 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (18 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Brick for Your Shelf
Comment: This is one of the novels that I have most looked foreward to reading. I was so happy to discover the greatest Austrian, if not European, novelist of the 20th century. I loved the title, and I usually love modernist literature and the difficulties it presents.
With that said, reading this novel has been one of the most tedious and painful experiences I ever subjected myself to. I don't really care about any of the characters (how can you care for someone without qualities??), there is no plot, the characterization seems cliched, the ideas seem trite.
This novel probably does give a good indiciation of how the Austro-Hungarian Empire must have felt in relationship to Europe right before World War I--someone just needed to shoot this cumbersome beast and put it out of its misery; the novel is the same way--compared to Kafka, Joyce, Proust, Svevo,even Faulkner, this novel doesn't hold much interest.
I do feel that students of literature should at least read the first section, "A Sort of Introduction" to get a feel for what Musil is doing. But once one gets the point of the novel of ideas, one doesn't need to finish the rest of the novel, unless one is really into it (hey, enough readers seem to like it, maybe you will be one of them.)
Finally, this is the type of book that looks good on a shelf, and the type of book that people read during graduate school and then never read again. It is a very important book, but knowing what Musil accomplished may be more of a prize than reading the entire novel. If anything you can wow your literary friends by mentioning a great Austrian writer with a name that sounds like cereal--don't worry most won't ask you anything more about the book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Essential Reading
Comment: Like Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain", this immense book aims at giving an overview of the ideas of its time. Musil is a more precise thinker and stylist than Mann, and "The Man Without Qualities" has a lot more to offer than Mann's book.
There are two opposing tendencies in the novel: On the one hand, Musil offers a highly entertaining satirical portrait of Austria-Hungary right before the First World War. His detached hero Ulrich meets all kinds of bizarre people, who happen to be members of the ruling class of the country. Like a vivisecteur, Ulrich analyzes the philosophies and ideologies of his time. On the other hand, he dreams of a kind of new mysticism, an emotional purity that is opposed to the dross surrounding him; together with his sister he embarks on quest for "the other state of being". Musil never finished the novel, he died before he could achieve a conclusion; which may have been impossible anyway.
This gigantic torso of a novel is arguably the greatest novel of the century. I have not yet come across anything that could rival it. Musil's prose is so precise that after reading a few pages you feel that your mind has been refreshed and cleared. This is not a novel to be read in a few days, but even if you never manage to finish it, you will always come back to it.
Rating: 5
Summary: LIterature at its finest
Comment: Oft described as one of the three most seminal works of 20th century, Modernist literature (the others being Proust's Remembrance, etc. & Joyce's Ulysses), Die Man Ohne Eigenschaften is an amazing work of literature. At the risk of being redundant, as other reviews attest to its magnificience, I shall attempt to be pithy and somewhat original in terms of these reviews.
-This work shows the absurdity of the old aristocratic system of Austria at the turn of the century, and absurdity at large as well
-the way he depicts Prussia against Austria and yet with it will shed tremendous light on the extent to which America is Prussia II
-the work has some very stimulating approaches to the question of morality, even if you study philosophy
-his theistic/agnostic/atheistic ruminations are of central significance. Reading his ruminations on God as I rode a train through Austria and sipped Kirsch was one of the most splendid moments of my journey
-The British edition is condensed into one volume, for those who prefer something more singular, although it is lacking 80 or so pages of material from the American edition
-this work IS NOT slow, difficult reading. The prose is very well crafted. his wit moves things along fantastically
-this work is highly relevant to our own times
like many of the greatest books, Musil's m. opus is often relegated to academe ... don't be part of that current.
also rec: William Gaddis' THE RECOGNITIONS
 |
Title: The Man Without Qualities Vol. 2: Into the Millennium, from the Posthumous Papers by ROBERT MUSIL ISBN: 0679768025 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
 |
Title: Diaries : 1899-1941 by Robert Musil, Adolf Frise, Philip Payne, Mark Mirsky ISBN: 0465016510 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Zeno's Conscience : A Novel by William Weaver, Italo Svevo ISBN: 0375727760 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: Death of Virgil by Hermann Broch ISBN: 0679755489 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 15 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch ISBN: 0679764062 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 30 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $20.40 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
