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Has anybody read The Man Without Qualities? I came across it online the other day and was drawn in by the title as well as the various Kafka comparisons I saw in the amazon reviews. However, amazon reviews aren't always the greatest and the two volumes are kind of expensive so I just wondered what the poeple at LNF thought of it.
By Robert Musil if you want to check it out for yourself.
Do you mean this one:
The Man Without Qualities (1930–42; German: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) is an unfinished novel in three books by the Austrian writer Robert Musil?
Yes, that one indeed.
I've never read this, but I have read some reviews and have been interested in reading this for awhile. Most of the reviews compare it to Mann's Magic Mountain or Proust, and I found one that compared the ideas in this novel to Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor ,in both their scope and intensity.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Truth
I'm not sure, but like you, intrigued.
Here is a review you may find interesting. http://www.greatbooksguide.com/Musil.html
I have it sitting on my shelf for last 2 years waiting to be read. A huge, daunting book.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i72/Raz1/b36b8625.jpg
It's been on my to-read list for a very long time, and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.
From what I've read, if you like long experimental-leaning Modernist novels, then it's probably for you.
A friend of mine considered this book the best novel ever written in the XXth century... He was so excited as to say Musil is Proust "with the intelligence". A stark comment, I think. ^^
I have checked it out while browsing, reading pages here and there. Had no particular attraction based on what I read. I have a good track record of picking books this way. After reading a few pages of Gaddis's The Recognitions, for example, I was pretty sure I was holding a masterpiece—which was amply borne out—and if, as Desolation puts it, "you like long experimental-leaning Modernist novels," the Gaddis is essential reading. Now that you have reminded me, I think I will put the Musil on interlibrary loan. Wouldn't pay for it, especially as it is unfinished.
I don't know, Wyatt...I think that, especially with the long difficult reads, the first few pages (or even the entire first third) can be very deceptive. I think it took me a good 100 pages of The Recognitions before I really started to grasp how special that book was. It can take a while for those kinds of writers to spread their wings in a work. Some writers, like Joyce and Proust, know how to rip your face off right from the get go...But I've found that most of my favorite works start off sort of lackluster while they're setting the scene and taking off.
Gaddis is absolutely essential reading, though. That much I can definitely agree on.
I have his first novel, the troubles of student Torless, which i had begun reading but lost interest. Will try to re-read that first and then advance to the man without qualities.
PS: If it is anything like TM's The Magic Mountain i would rather pass though...