Ezra's Bookshelf

The Man Without Qualities

by Robert Musil · 1073 pages · ~19.5 hrs

FictionPhilosophy

Recommended on

buy on bookshop.org →
Robert Musil's massive novel, left unfinished at his death in 1942, follows Ulrich, a man who has deliberately chosen to be 'without qualities' in order to remain open to possibility. Set in 1913-1914 Vienna, the last year before the Austro-Hungarian Empire's collapse, the novel satirizes a society that has no idea it is about to disappear. Ulrich is recruited to help plan celebrations for the Emperor's jubilee, a task that requires him to determine what Austria-Hungary actually stands for—a question to which no one can provide an answer. Musil, trained as an engineer and philosopher, wrote prose that combines narrative with extended essayistic reflection on psychology, culture, and modernity. The novel's length and difficulty have limited its readership, but those who engage with it find one of the twentieth century's most profound explorations of modern consciousness. Musil spent two decades on the book, publishing the first two parts while writing and rewriting what was to follow. The extant manuscript runs to over a thousand pages with no conventional resolution. This is modernism's Everest: formidable, unfinished, and unforgettable.

For fans of

Reviews