Why is Robert Musil underrated?

[gustave dore]

Man without Qualities is considered the greatest german novel of the 20th century, and musil is said to be as good as Joyce and Proust. Yet, Musil is not that widely read. Why is this, is it because the quality of the translations available?

[waltzinmathilda]

Man without Qualities is considered the greatest german novel of the 20th century, and musil is said to be as good as Joyce and Proust. Yet, Musil is not that widely read. Why is this, is it because the quality of the translations available?
as you yourself stated, MWQ is considered to be a work of immense literary value, so Musil is not underrated. The fact that he is not widely read is a completely different issue. I myself would never have tackled it -were it not for the fact that it was a mandatory text for a university course I attended at the beginning of the year- because it has a reputation as a difficult, boring, unfinished novel. And it is[I] difficult, boring and unfinished, even though Musil's prose is so beautiful and full of intelligence and humour. I was halfway through it when I had to put it down because I needed to give priority to other exams I have to take next month, and it was taking me forever to read it in German anyway, but my impression of the book so far is that it is basically a giant essay, and that in order to appreciate it you must have at least some knowledge of the philosophical premises from which Musil started, as well as of the historical/political context of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. So, to answer your question, I think the main reason why people tend to avoid reading it is that it is difficult and requires a certain level of research and of attention on the part of the reader, which not everyone is willing to commit to. Plus, its reputation as a great classic might be a huge put off for many readers, because sometimes high praise from the literary [I]elite can intimidate average readers: in my experience, for instance, Ulysses' reputation as a difficult, highly experimental work is one of the reasons why I keep putting off reading it, and I consider myself, maybe immodestly, something more than an average reader, given the fact that I am a literature student and I have to be willing to commit to literary texts.

[Emil Miller]

I found Musil to be unreadable because A Man Without Qualities had no apparent plot and meandered on to no apparent purpose. He is the only German writer that I don't like. A much better writer on the Austro Hungarian monarchy is Joseph Roth whose Radetzky Marsch and Die Kapuzinergruft are readily accessible to the majority of readers in German