Summary of The Man Without Qualities
âThe Man Without Qualitiesâ is an unfinished three-volume novel by Austrian writer Robert Musil, set in Vienna in 1913. The book has around twenty different characters, but its focus is on Ulrich, a 32-year-old anti-hero and mathematician in search of lifeâs meaning. It is both a satirical and a philosophical novel, chronicling the moral crisis within the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the years preceding the First World War.
Reasons to read The Man Without Qualities
Often ranked among the greatest modernist novels of the twentieth century – alongside James Joyceâs âUlyssesâ and Marcel Proustâs âIn Search of Lost Timeâ â Robert Musil‘s âThe Man Without Qualitiesâ was voted the best German-language novel of the twentieth century in 1999. With over a thousand pages and a wide-ranging cast, it can be a demanding read, but it offers a sharp and ironic portrait of Viennese society on the brink of the First World War. Musil refers to Austria-Hungary as âKakaniaâ, a name derived from the German abbreviation âK und Kâ for âKaiserlich und Königlichâ (âImperial and Royalâ). The Habsburg monarchs were Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary, although the term âkakaâ also carries a less dignified meaning.
Setting: Vienna (Austria)
Original title: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften
Year of publication: 1930-1943
Number of pages: 1130-1774
Depending on the edition…
