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Qualities Without a Man |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Lee Congdon |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1995 |
| Size: 2,631 Words, 16,253 Characters |
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THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES, 1-2
Robert Musil, translated by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995
1,774 pp., $60.00
I do not think that Americans will readily identify Robert Musil, for unlike such celebrity writers as Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, he never made it to our shores and always stood aloof from public controversy. A loner who shunned the limelight in order to devote himself to the encyclopedic novel under review, he died in 1942, penniless and in exile from his native Austria. A perfectionist, he consented only with the greatest reluctance to the 1930 publication of parts 1 ("A Sort of Introduction") and 2 ("Pseudoreality Prevails") of his work in progress. Three years later, in dire financial straits, he permitted the first thirty-eight chapters of part 3 ("Into the Millennium [The Criminals]") to appear, but in 1938 he withdrew twenty additional chapters after they had been set in galley proof. No other material intended for part 3 saw the light of day during his lifetime, and he did little more than sketch part 4 ("A Sort of Ending").
Now, at last, Americans have available to them a superb translation of what, despite being unfinished, has become one of German-speaking central Europe's most widely acclaimed and discussed works of literature. In addition to Sophie Wilkins' fresh version of the 1930/1933 texts, the distinguished Musil scholar Burton Pike has translated for the first time the twenty chapters that Musil withdrew, together with alternate draft versions and sketches from his posthumous papers. Those who possess the stam...
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...done so would have been to close the door to new possibilities forever. That explains why he objected so strenuously to the publication of sections of his work in progress. Once they had appeared in print, he could not make further revisions. It is, I believe, Musil's utopian denial of the finite character of human existence that robs his monumental and often brilliant work of true greatness.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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