De man zonder eigenschappen: deel 1

by Robert Musil, Jo Radersma (Editor), Hans Hom (Editor)

Contains: A Sort of Introduction
The Like of it Now Happens (I)

"It would be useless to attempt a synopsis of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, not only because of its length and complexity, but also because the real action lies not on the surface, in what the characters do (though that is often dramatic enough), but within, in their states of mind, the fluctuations of their emotions, their theories, and the counterpoint between the thoughts and the behaviour of them all, in themselves and in relation to each other, especially to the Man without Qualities himself, who is the nucleus, and in relation to the demands of the indefinable pattern of this world we live in."
(From the Foreword by the translators)

Genres: Fiction, Classics, German Literature, Modern Classics, Modern, Philosophy, Collections

449 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Austrian writer.

He graduated military boarding school at Eisenstadt (1892-1894) and then Hranice, in that time also known as Mährisch Weißkirchen, (1894-1897). These school experiences are reflected in his first novel, The Confusions of Young Törless.

He served in the army during The First World War. When Austria became a part of the Third Reich in 1938, Musil left for exile in Switzerland, where he died of a stroke on April 15, 1942. Musil collapsed in the middle of his gymnastic exercises and is rumoured to have died with an expression of ironic amusement on his face. He was 61 years old.

Reviews

[Jessica]

Reading this book was the way I'd wrongly imagined reading Proust would be. That is, at the beginning it was engaging and interesting, and unlike anything I'd read. Then it started to get a little harder, but I still liked it a lot, and was enjoying myself. It has a mentally-ill felony offender! One of my favorite things! And his description of psychosis was much better and more accurate than most authors'. Anyway, at first it was exciting -- Vienna! Modernity! But then it got quite a bit less so, and started growing kind of.... dense. Not dense as in stupid. Dense as in too smart. I started feeling like I needed to go read up on the Hapsburg Empire and on pre-War Europe in general. Like maybe not just a Wikipedia entry, like do actual research in order to understand what was going on.... Then this book and I settled into a pattern where a page or paragraph of brilliant beauty would suddenly shatter the numbed fugue I'd been pushed into by the increasingly abstract, ponderous, and no doubt very brainful surrounding chapter, and I'd leap up and cry, "This book is fantastic!" before sitting down heavily to nod off again in a pile of my own drool.

Don't get me wrong: I think this book was good. I'm pretty sure it was, but I just wasn't up to it. I read 297 pages, and several of those pages I did like very much. However, quite a few months ago I put it down on my desk at work, and somehow or another haven't picked it up since. So I took it on the train today, thinking it was about time I finished, and opened it up for the first time since spring. I made it through about a page and a half, then had to admit I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. And you know what? I know when I'm beat.

The Man Without Qualities was over my head. I'm not ashamed to admit it! This book was too hard. I mean, honestly if this weren't the first of three volumes, I'd read the last sixty-eight pages, but it is, and I'm not, and anyway, I'm pretty sure he didn't finish writing it before he died, which is also a demotivating factor. If Robert Musil couldn't finish The Man Without Qualities how on earth can I be expected to?

I do recommend this to someone who wants to read something unique, intellectually engaging, and fairly difficult. At the moment, however, that someone's not me.

[Şehriban Kaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

20.yüzyılın üzerinde en çok konuşulan kitaplarından biri Musil'in Niteliksiz Adam'ının 1.cildini bitirdim. Bir hayli zorlandım itiraf edeyim. Çok keyifli bir okuma değil ama kararlıyım geriye kalan 3 cildi de okuyacağım.
Romanın kahramanı, Niteliksiz Adam,Ulrich, 30lu yaşların başlarında, bir süre yurt dışında yaşadıktan sonra Viyana'ya dönmüş bir matematikçi ve bilimadamı ve daha birkaç işi denemiş bir adamdır. Ulrich birçok işi denemiş tam olarak ne yapmak istediğine karar verememiş varoluş sıkıntısı çeken sürekli kendisini ve etrafındakileri analiz eden bir karakter. Ne huzur ne aydınlanma peşindedir, önce aşk sonra doğa sonra matematik üzerinden gerçeği aramaya bulmaya çalışmış ama artık herhangi bir heyacanı kalmamıştır. Viyena'da çarpıcı bir ev alır dekore eder, profesör olan babası sabırla Ulrich'in bir iş edinmesi bekler ama yorulunca onu imparatorluk bürokrasisiyle olan yakın bağlarını kullanarak tam olarak ne olduğu belli olmayan bir işe sokar. Burada Ulrich'in meşgul olduğu iş "paralel faaliyet" olarak tanımlanan, özünde eylemsizlikten sıkılmış erdemli bir eylem arayan kentsoylu elitlerin, Almanya karşısındaki 1866’daki yenilginin acısını hafifletecek bir teselli arayışında yaşlı imparatorlarının tahta geçişinin 70.yılı kutlamak üzere hayata geçirmeye çalıştıkları bir faaliyettir. Ulrich paralel faaliyet'te kuzeni Diotima ile etkin bir konumdadır ama asıl sorun kimsenin bu paralel faaliyetin ne olduğuna dair tam bir fikrinin olmamasıdır. Ulrich kendini hiç istemediği bir bürokratik ilişkiler ağı ve karmakarışık kadın erkek ilişkileri arasında bulur. Sanırım diğer 3 ciltte de bu devam edecek.

Ulrich yani Niteliksiz Adam’ın çevresinde, soylular arasında saygın bir yer edinen Daire başkanı Tuzzi, Tuzzi'nin karısı aynı zamanda Ulrich'in kuzeni güzel zeki kültürlü ve bir nevi paralel faaliyetin gayrı resmi başkanı Diotima Tuzzi, aristokrat Kont Leinsdorf, Savunma Bakanlığınca paralel faaliyeti izlemekle görevlendirilmiş General Stumm von Bordwehr, Ulrich’ in çocukluk arkadaşı, yetenekli müzisyen Walter ve eşi Clarisse, Loyd Bankası'nın müdürü Fischel ve kızı Gerda, prusyalı kapitalist Arnheim; renkli ve işveli genç hizmetçi Rachelle var. Ayrıca roman boyu Ulrich ve Clarisse'nin ilgi alanına giren vahşi, kadın katili Moosbrugger de ilginç bir yan karakter.

Yalnız alkışlar çevirmen M. Sami Türk'e gidiyor. Bu kadar zor bir metni Almanca'dan çevirmek herkesin harcı değil. Resmen adanmışlıkla yapılacak bir iş. Ellerine sağlık çevirmenin.

[A. Raca · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Birbiriyle iyi geçinen insanların duyguları sonradan nefrete mi dönüyor?"

Niteliksiz Adam Ulrich matematikle ve bilimle ilgilenen ama üniversiteyle işi olmayan daha sonraları felsefeye de ilgi duymaya başlamış biridir. Hep bir anlam arayışı içerisinde modernleşen Avrupa'da birçok kadının ve adamın arasında bulur kendini. 'Paralel Faaliyet' adını verdikleri toplantılar çevresinde geçer kitap.
Tam olarak ne yazacağımı bilemiyorum, muazzam bir eser harşka bir anlatım şekli ama belki 4'ünü bitirince bir şeyler yazabilirim.

♡

[Asim Bakhshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life has stopped me somehow to embark upon the six (or is it seven?) volumes of Proust, or tomes of Mellville or Cervantes as yet , but having the opportunity to read Musil's masterpiece while I am still alive was an amazing experience. Its like somehow being able to make a little sense of the tragic complexity of this life before after-life. But this tragedy is modern in all its dimensions. I am not sure how it would ever be possible to reproduce the literary experiment of Musil in all its complexity; in other words, how one can write a novel so enriched with ideological discourse is infinitely beyond me. Such complex and wide territory of ideas is often charted in poetry, however doing it in prose, in the medium of a gigantic unending novel, and unlike Russian masters, doing it with very few characters and nearly no plot is truly ingenious. I am barely into the second volume and know that there is no end as such; however, I can't stop wondering at this magnificent Austrian mind.

[Klowey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note:
I read only Volume 1 in the Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser translation (chapters 1 through 72) of this otherwise lengthy tome.

This is a dense book of ideas, with the main characters (some of whom were inspired by real people) questioning all aspects of life, culture, tradition, duty, and morality during the last days of the Hapsburg Empire. It can be a tough read if you're not in the mood for an intense philosophical mental exercise. The discussion from a buddy for this book in the Goodreads group is here and contains many superb comments from the deleted reader.

I hope to return to the additional volumes someday, and will probably start with a reread of Volume 1. I also listened to the corresponding chapters in the audible translation by Sophie Wilkins, whose translation I preferred, and I will probably stick with that edition.

The Divisions
The book is both unfinished and divided differently, depending upon the translation, which can make for great confusion if you are unaware of all of its parts and the copious posthumous notes also available.

In the original German, it is divided thus:
First Book: A Sort of Introduction
    Chapters 1-19 (around 90 pages long)
Second Book: The Like of It Now Happens
    Chapters 20-123 (around 730 pages)
Third Book: Into the Millennium (The Criminals)
    Chapters 1-38 (chapter titles restart at 1 here, roughly 450 pages long)

In the old Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser translation, it was split up as follows:
Volume 1 comprises the First Book and the first half of the Second Book, up to Chapter 72.
Volume 2 comprises the rest of the Second Book, starting at chapter 73.
Volume 3 comprises the Third Book.

In the new translation by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike it's divided up as:
Volume 1 comprises the First Book and the Second Book.
Volume 2 comprises the Third Book and the extra materials.

Note:
In some versions Part III also contains XX chapters as galley proofs, published in 1937. And 10K pages c.ca of material published posthumously.

[merixien · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ Niteliklere sahip olma durumu, onların gerçekliği karşısında belli ölçüde bir sevinç duymayı şart koşacağına göre bu, kendisine karşı bile gerçeklik duygusunu açığa vuramayan birinin kazara, günün birinde bizzat kendisinin kendi şahsına niteliksiz bir adam gibi görünmesine yol açacaktır.”

Okuması kesinlikle çok zor, ağırlığı altında ezilen bir kitap. Sayısız kez cümlenin başına yahut bir önceki sayfaya dönme ihtiyacı duyuyor insan. Bir yanda Almanya - Avusturya arasındaki çekişmenin ve üstünlük arayışının bir kolu olarak Avusturya imparatorunun tahta çıkışının 70. Yılına özel bir faliyetin hayata geçirilmesi sürecini okurken diğer yandan insan, ülke ve dünya geneline hemen hemen her konuda yayılan yoğun bir felsefi sorgulamayı takip ediyorsunuz. En anlaşılır haliyle kitap okurunu dövüyor resmen.

Bir diğer konu ise çeviri. Yky’in 2. Ciltten sonra yarım kalmasıyla şu anda Aylak Adam 4 cilt tam metin çevirisiyle geldi. İki çeviriyi kıyaslama hatasına düşmemek için öncelikli olarak, 4. Cildin sonunda yer alan “çevirmenin son sözü” bölümünü okuyup ondan sonra kitabı okumanızı tavsiye ederim. Böylece neden kitabı okurken zaman zaman TDK’ya başvurmak zorunda kaldığınızı ve bu kadar zor anlaşılır bir dille Türkçe’ye aktarıldığını daha iyi anlıyorsunuz. M.Sami Türk muazzam bir iş çıkartmış çeviride.

Son tavsiye; kitabı okuyup okumama kısmında kararsız iseniz; bir kitapevine gidip ilk bölümün ilk paragrafını okuyun, hoşunuza gitmezse kitabı almayın, zira devamı da aynı anlatım tarzı ve zorluğunda ilerleyecek.

[Urtencija · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lėta knyga, bet ilgai skaityti irgi sudėtinga, nes visai pasimiršta knygos veiksmas, kurio joje ir taip nedaug. Daug apmąstymų, filosofavimo, netgi ironijos. Man šiuo metu artimiausia tema buvo biurokratija ir jos neveiksnumas: "pasirodė, kad tiksliai laikantis įstatymo bet kokį darbą galima sustabdyti greičiau, negu tai padarytų nežabočiausia anarchija" arba "kiek tvarkos įvedama atskirose srityse, tiek jos prarandama bendrai imant, tad turime vis daugiau tvarkų ir mažiau tvarkos".

Na ir labiausiai patikusi citata:
"O per du tūkstantmečius altruistinio auklėjimo žmonės buvo pasidarę tokie nesavanaudžiai, kad ir tada, kai man ar tau turi būti blogai, kiekvienas nori, kad tai būtų kitam."

[Ted J. Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, lyrical treatise on more or less everything that it means to be human. Musil makes even the most mundane experiences of life reveal themselves to be drenched in meaning and significance.

[Nazarii Zanoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

За розмірами, звісно, глиба. Як повільно і дотошно Музіль це все розписує. Але куди цікавіше, ніж я очікував. Ні, нема якоїсь динаміки сильної і т.д., радше психологішні описи, проте значно цікавіші, ніж в Терлесі.

[Richard Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review pertains to volumes 1-3 of the Wilkins and Kaiser translation. I intend on reviewing Burton Pike’s translation of Musil’s notes and unfinished chapters separately.

Even as I type these words, I cannot help but regard them as an evanescent procession I will later disavow—as has been the fate of all I've written, will be the fate of all I'll write. How then, do I justify their composure and subsequent release? Why still do I require reasons? I have found no terminus to the inner labyrinths such questions beseech me to search, but at least some minor entertainment in said bunny trails of soul. Try again, shall we.

Two years ago, or maybe it was three (exactitude exhausts itself with age), I chanced upon painter Francis Picabia’s oeuvre at a MoMA exhibition, and beheld myself as might an infant on his first of many bouts with the looking glass to come. Funny, how we’re told to find ourselves; it always means to abreact this nauseating mirror moment, in which all past principles turn to vapor like some dumbstruck vampire caught sideways by the sun—the infinity you feel collapses in the definition you see, and suddenly reality impinges, “This is me.” Needless to say, Picabia reflected me brutally. His mimicry of styles—Impressionism, Cubism, Dada, Kitsch—demonstrates less the chameleon’s crowd camouflage than the molting serpent’s desire to master, then overcome, limitation. It is a trajectory of aesthetic escape which culminates in the Transparency series, by which I think his Becoming succeeded. Mine, however, has lost all horizon.

Recalling that this very problem—that is, the question of right living—which now besets me is a central concern in The Man Without Qualities, I felt it natural to set aside all other planned readings in favor of exploring whatever solutions Robert Musil may have developed, over the course of his two-decade investment, to our common quandary. Ulrich, the titular “man without qualities” and obvious self-insert, finds himself existentially adrift in his bourgeois Vienna milieu five years before the first World War. Ulrich, like Musil, had been a soldier, engineer, mathematician, and de facto philosopher at various stages in his youth,

…had thought of the kind of life that would appeal to him as a large experimental station, where the best ways of living as a human being would be tried out and new ones discovered.

I know well how it feels to be seized by an ideology just to be dismayed, with the wisdom of experience, by the poverty of its conclusions, and, on the other hand, by its failure to accommodate one’s metamorphosizing self. It’s rather like being welcomed by a warm bath only to discover your fingers have pruned because you’ve overstayed your soak. Leftover from these sudsy laves is a residue of skepticism, whence—especially in environments where any of the many-and-proliferating moral stances may be argued convincingly for—appears no satisfactory criterion of conduct, nothing to strive for whose artistic possibilities have not been exhausted by men of erstwhile eras; Musil’s caricatures serve to fossilize and obsolesce.

There is the delicate Walter, who depletes his reserve of talent flitting from hobby to hobby in youthful dilettantism, achieving in each pursuit less than was demanded of his once-heralded genius, and by his wife Clarisse; repulsed Clarisse, as a grown woman still bandying her Nietzsche like a tattered teenage blouse never outgrown, who wishes to make of Ulrich a surrogate übermensch and father (to which he does not acquiesce, finding the limpidity of her motive utterly distasteful); Diotima, socialite, matron of the Collateral Campaign around which the novel revolves, airhead; Rachel her servant-girl, enthralled by the glitzy personages and their dazzling prolixity (of which she understands not a whit); Dr. Paul Arnheim, industrialist and veritable Renaissance Man, an erudite polyglot as conversant in Chaucer as coal futures, a man of Many Qualities, well-defined; General Stumm von Bordwehr, forever aware, whether in matters equestrian or cultural, of his inferiority, ever butting into the circles of discourse, Peter Principle personified; and other such more-or-less dignified, sensual, colored, penurious partial, tried-and-inadequate solvents.

Moosbrugger is the future which has yet to happen. Diotima’s salon—a synecdoche for Europe—represents the dogged prostitute his annoyance murders, its aristocrats and intellectuals striving to imbue the demos with a notion of “spirit” so vague no invitee can delimit anything but its general felt necessity. Ulrich understands this conceit from the get-go and is unsurprised when their non-attempts at enacting history top-down devolve into stultifying bureaucracy. His realism-fueled detachment (in one of Musil’s better ironies) merits him affection, insofar as it deepens, from all sides, though they, like the suitor whose romancing scales with his sweetheart’s indifference, know not why. Perhaps this was Musil implicitly endorsing the so-called hovering life as adaptive behavior for those with presentiment of a Great War.

But in the novel, it will only ever loom; Musil will die while exercising one morning, astonished at the thieflike quickness of the scythe. Would he have wrapped things up as planned—at cusp of war—had he the time? I wonder. Critic consensus says no, he wrote too slowly; revised too much; that (and his widow wrote that he’d been busy writing on the day) even were he to have ripened to his father’s nearly eighty, the fruit would not have fallen. I’m good enough with what’s been given—he died doing what he loved. Or… no, that’s a terrible triteness I hope none will say of me when comes my hour, for it presumes an interior knowledge nought but I can have. Rather, I conject that he died fulfilling his vocation, that yes, this interminable writing, writing, writing was less a love than sound solution, more than any yet-unrealized unio mystica between Ulrich and Agathe could have been, that's for sure (or maybe that’s my sister envy speaking); I remark that Musil’s disillusionment with the Great Man hypothesis, and then the dilution of genius’s semantic potency, was, in relation to Ulrich’s, merely nominal, for he held no small pretensions at being one day received—by an audience with a fuller capacity for discernment than his contemporaries—as a Great Novelist; and I adduce, against Musil’s satirical salon so satisfied with its patina of progress, the very real Café Central, which in the selfsame Vienna of 1913 housed such ephemeral busybodies as Hitler, Trotsky, Stalin, Tito, Freud, Franz Ferdinand…

But those who appreciate technical mastery will find no shortage of it here. Some say singing was for Frank Sinatra as breathing; for Musil, the music’s all in metaphor:

He always put into circulation emotional small change in gold and silver, while Ulrich operated on a large scale, so to speak with intellectual cheques made out for enormous sums; but ultimately it was only paper. (Book 1, Ch. 29)

If, however, the balloon of one’s life happens to be nine thousand feet up in the air, one doesn’t simply step out of it, even if one doesn’t agree with all that is going on. (2, 36)

The piano was hammering glittering note-nails into a wall of air. (2, 38)

Such is the unmistakable odour of countless tiny facts which clings about the clothes the centuries wear. (3, 22)

Any great author can pull out like witty comparisons, of course, but who among them can unveil the gears behind?

A metaphor contains a truth and a falsehood, which are inextricably interlocked in one’s emotions. If one takes it as it is and forms it with one’s senses, giving it the shape of reality, what arises is dreams and art; but between these two and real, full life there is a glass wall. If one takes it up with one’s intellect, separating whatever does not accord from the elements that are in perfect concord, what arises is truth and knowledge, but emotion is destroyed.
(2, 115)

Finding poetry in philosophy and vice versa is but one of Musil’s powers; too can he detonate such a sublime psychodrama as Book 2, Chapter 118, or circumscribe, with microscopic rigor, the phenomenology of satori, as in Book 3, Chapter 12. No less can I forget marching through the Kakanian prison’s zoology of invalids, and its attendant horror, than the lawyers’ duel for the basis on which either of words “and” and “or” shall be codified into writ, and its humor. Here are modernity’s axioms firmly grasped and schematized, prophetic—no, predictive—then, now accurate and vindicated, magnified, exacerbated (Musil would not be surprised to hear “accelerism” has blossomed into a fully fleshed philosophy).

Know, though I’m nowhere nearer to an everlasting personal ethos after spending a month in Musil’s head, that I don’t regret an hour of it, but do not excuse your reading through my praise; you will not finish. I can only recommend prospective readers MWQ to the extent they're temperamentally similar—else suffices Musil’s self-assessment: “…my readers have gradually come to me, not I to them.”

[Ripleyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a vacation from life and stopped reading for a week or so. Picked up Musil again. Yeah this is a killer novel and anything but sometimes it’s incredibly grating to read, which seems to be a translation issue, as well as a general early 20th century issue.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most delicious of modernist novels - even though the translation in my edition wasn't the best.

If there is such a thing as a sense of reality then there must also be something that one can call a sense of possibility. Anyone possessing it does not say, for instance: here this or that has happened, will happen, must happen. He uses his imagination and says: here such and such might, should, or ought to happen. And if he is told that something is the way it is, than he thinks: well it could probably just as easily be some other way. So the sense of possibility might be defined outright as the capacity to think how everything could 'just as easily' be, and attach no importance to what is than to what is not.

[elektrospiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wyjątkowa powieść, zasłużenie zaliczana do arcydzieł prozy 20 w. Cóż jest w niej nadzwyczajnego? Uchwycić w powieści rys epoki w szerokim spektrum postaci dla niej charakterystycznych zdarzało się przecież nie tak rzadko, lecz chyba nieczęsto wchodzimy w motywacje jednostek tak głęboko, w ich sposób myślenia warunkowany zarówno psychologicznie (Musila umiejętność opisywania nienazwanych i sprzecznych uczuć) jak i społecznie. A przy tym to aż nieprawdopodobne, że proza ta powstawała równolegle do swej epoki - czyli 100 lat temu - bo jest bardzo współczesna, choć język (czytałem niestety po polsku) całkiem współczesny nie jest, co zresztą w ostatecznym rozrachunku należy jej zaliczyć na plus.

Do tego dochodzą przenikliwe analizy filozoficznych prądów tego czasu, wiążące wydarzenia polityczne ze zdobyczami nauki i próba wyjaśnienia ich oddziaływania zderzeniem idei - wtargnięciem mieszczańskiego i naukowego racjonalnego myślenia w religijno-feudalną mentalność epoki poprzedniej, czego wynikiem jest pewna nowa kategoria ludzi. To ludzie, którzy nie są już, jak dawniej, pełni czy też samodzielnie myślący, potrafiący więc ogarnąć - umysłem, siłą charakteru czy wiary - to, co się wokół nich dzieje. Nie są już w stanie świata zrozumieć czy stanąć wobec niego jako samodzielne, pełne jednostki. To właśnie "ludzie bez właściwości" - miękcy, naginający się do warunków, płynący z prądem, przybierający takie poglądy, jakie przeważają akurat w społeczeństwie, ponieważ są zdani na wycinkowe poznanie rzeczywistości i falsyfikowalne obrazy świata, zależne od przeczących sobie wzajemnie idei i poglądów. Tę niepewność kilka stuleci wcześniej zapoczątkował druk (tak podejrzewam, choć to niewypowiedziana do końca diagnoza autora), który poprzez stworzenie literatury uniezależnił "właściwości" - sądy o świecie - od samych ludzi. A te, zaistniałe samodzielnie, spowodowały, iż sami ludzie są bez (własnych) właściwości - przejmują bowiem te, jakie są dostępne na rynku idei. (...)

Cała opinia na stronie: http://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/48009/...

[Юра Мельник · Rating 5 out of 5]

Навіть людина без властивостей може прочитати книгу з властивостями, але з цього, що цікаво, нічого не випливає.
Звісно ж, Роберт Музіль писав цю книгу все життя, звісно ж він її не дописав. Історія Людини без властивосте��, це крихітна дрібка реалізму в оточенні спотворених форм культурного надбання старої Європи. Головний герой роману, автрієць - Ульріх, освічений аристократ і спадкоємець впливового законодавця, не має жодної виразної ознаки, яка дала б надала йому бодай одну спробу внести ясність у події, що об’єднують життя мільйонів людей, у країнах, які неменуче зазнають суспільно політичних змін першої половини ХХ століття. Ульріх знаходить спосіб реалізувати себе у комітеті з організації великого національного святкування (акцію) - семидесятиліття правління (не помічаєте чогось незвичного?) імператора Дунайської імперії (Австрії). Сутність цього святкування - ніким не збагненна суспільна потреба продемонструвати легітимність багатовікових моральних і суспільних норм і спроба відвернути увагу від того, що саме ці норми розпадаються на культурні атоми і зникають на сторінках історії. Ульріх, як людина без властивостей, знаходить своє призначення у справі, яка не має жодного значення і ймовірно не призведе до жодного наслідку. Будь-який з іменитих співорганізаторів цієї акції не може чітко сформувати з чого вона власне буде складатись, однак акція живе, хоч і у вигляді найменш зрозумілої з усіх ідей, суспільства того часу.
Триває те саме.

[Artem Perkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отримав велике задоволення. Багато хто пише, що взяв читати її, бо чув паралелі з Прустом, але розчарувався, бо Марселем там і не пахне. Але все ж «Людину без властивостей» не дарма порівнюють з «В пошуках…». Обидва автори працюють з гігантською формою, у обох ритм уповільнений, і постійні відступами в бік есеїстики чи потоку свідомості.

Обидва досліджують людську ідентичність: Пруст через взаємодію з памʼяттю і як вона формує, Музіль - через світогляд та ціннісні орієнтири (?) персонажа і глобальну кризу.

Ульріх - персонаж «Людини без властивостей» - не має стійких переконань, а тому окреслених дій та рішень, побудованих на власних цінностях також не сильно, щоб і помітно. Він радше аналізує та інтелектуалізує, знаходиться між тим, де попередні його уявлення про світ вже не працюють, а власні цінності та переконання для реального життя ще не сформувались. Драму тут створює катастрофа, що насувається на Європу, яка вимагає людей «з властивостями». А, ну ще гумор: ви бачитимете його навіть крізь різницю в століття та культур

[Ігор Дядько · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книжка дуже майстерно написана, але не цікава. Де тепер країна Каканія? Де найясніший цісар? Дошкульна сатира видається тепер гудінням мух над дохлятиною. Але з іншого боку сатира кусає не тільки державні інституції, а й окремих людей, тобто книга є коментарем про умови людського життя. Я уявляю собі, як автор наполегливо працював, щоб улити отруту в кожне речення, щоб вона була розподілена рівномірно, а не випинала недоречно із загалом нейтрального тексту.

Другий том я скоріше за все не читатиму, бо не сподіваюся довідатися щось нове. Майстерно, але нудно.

[Olga Ivkova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ви зможете осилити всі три томи, а в вас вірю:)

[Iris Horia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo dobra książka i chociaż na wstępnie tego nie zakładałam – potrzebowałam ją przeczytać. To takie comfort zone.
Dlaczego więc tylko 4 gwiazdki? Liczba romansów Ulricha była przytłaczająca.

[Kristina'S Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Гарна книга. Але ніякі фібри душі не затримтіли. Мабуть не потрапила у настрій. Але філософські відступи були цікавші за сюжетну лінію.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading "Man Without Qualities" for the better part of a year, and have had it on my shelf since 1974. From browsing it then, I considered it one of my top five books. Now I'm not so sure. It is very dense, and should be read slowly with an underliner. It has many parallels to the world of politics today with Brexit and Trump. It is essentially the story of high society in the Austrian-Hungarian empire before WWII. No one is really able to affect change, and many groups are divided. Musil believes that nothing can really be done by society, and that politics and business should not be trusted. Musil was a philosophy professor. He died in 1941, 62 years old hidden in Switzerland, having never completed the book.

Ulrich, the main character, is a scientist in his early 30s, who has returned to Vienna and is reconsidering his life. There are seven other characters (friends, a cousin, her wife, Ulrich's mistress, and a business man). He wanders between them, contemplating life. He raises many theories. He is asked to join a large group of thinkers at his cousin's house and they will devise a grand plan for change. Nothing really happens. They are too polite, but meanwhile, Ulrich puts all movement on paper. His depth of writing is compared to Proust and Stendahl. Some things just don't fit with today, such as his views of every female move; not everything has meaning, no matter how much you theorize. I would not recommend reading this book, even in the dead of winter. My stars are for his depth of writing and thinking.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent all of March 2017 reading this translation of Musil's masterwork (Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser, 1954) alongside the latest translation by Sophie Wilkins, 1995. After a staggered start, I overlapped two chapters in one, then two chapters in the other, always re-reading a chapter I'd just finished in the "other" version.

A brilliant novel depicting a time and place via a multitude of characters, upon which floats the strange disaffected character of the Man Without Qualities. While perhaps never intended, the novel's lack of conclusion, it's never arriving, is its perfect conclusion. The earlier translation showed a bit more prudery and seemed more circumspect, while the later translation was looser, more informal. Both suffered at different times with English gaucheries and inelegant sentences when trying to translate the long, long, complex sentences Musil employed.

[Uğur Karabürk · Rating 2 out of 5]

📚Niteliksiz Adam Cilt 1- Musil📚

👉Çok merak ettiğim bir romanın ilk cildini bitirdim. Kitabı okuyanların yorumlarına bakınca beklentim de artmıştı. Fakat hiç de bana göre bir yapısı yokmuş. Öncelikle kitapta çok fazla mesele var ve aralarındaki geçişler oldukça keskin. Olay ise yok denecek kadar az. Ve bütün bunların birleşmesiyle beraber keyifli bir okuma sunmadı bana. Diğer ciltlere yakın dönemde devam etmeyi düşünmüyorum belki ileride el atabilirim. Unutulmasın bunların hepsi benim şahsi fikirlerimdir. Ayrıca bir güzel haber bu kitaba okuma maratonu videosu çektim. Toplam 5 gün parça parça farklı yerlerde okuma yaptım. Yarın(04.10.2020) de youtube “karanlık izler” kanalımda olacaktır. #niteliksizadam #robertmusil #roman

[Piet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Geen boek dat je in een ruk uitleest. De filosofische beschouwingen- en dat zijn er heel wat- zijn niet altijd te begrijpen., enkele uitzonderingen daargelaten. Zo vond ik zijn verhandeling over toerekeningsvatbaarheid interessant en typisch voor het muggenziften van rechtsgeleerden. de hoofdfiguren Ulrich en Diotima blijven allebei wat raadselachtig. Von Arnheim krijgt wat pedante trekjes en Giovanni Tuzzi komt zo nu en dan ten tonele. Waar zijn de kinderen vraag je je wel eens af als lezer. De hoofdstukken waar Clarisse, Rachel of Duodena in voorkomen zijn van een heel ander gehalte. Licht van toon, humoristisch en wat ondeugend.
De bureaucratie wordt goed neergezet evenals de pompeuze lucht verplaatsende holle frasen debiterende Z. Doorluchtige Hoogheid. Hoe gaat dit verder?

[Harry Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10 - The opening section really drew me in and perhaps raised my expectations a little high. The second section felt a little too disorganised and wide ranging in topic. It felt like musil should have written a few novels rather than push all his ideas into one novel, and the extremely slow progression of plot amongst somewhat repetitive ideas became a bit of a drag. That said there were some really interesting topics discussed and really beautiful sections.

Given it wasn’t in it’s finished form and given the heights of the highs, the occasional excessively dull moment or repeated point i can forgive. I will probably read the other two parts, just not straight away.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

неповторний історичний зріз австро-угорських настроїв 1913 року, реалій, постатей і характерів. Ульріх-Ахілл без властивостей, що змінює кілька професій, бо для tabula rasa професії неістотні. псевдосократівська Ермілінда-Діотима, промисловець Арнгайм-Ратенау, маніяк і гвалтівник Моосбругер, Бонадея-Клариса та інші мешканці Каканії - усі настільки невиразні та недоокреслені, що занудство сюжету виправдовується лише бездоганним перекладом Олекси Логвіненка. власне, заради Логвиненка я за це і взявся.

[Erik Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vijf sterren ! Niet zomaar 4,52 of 4,6 maar ronduit 5.

Het boek met de grappigste titel ooit (laat me aub weten of je er een grappigere kent) is meteen ook één van de meest gedenkwaardige.

Fabuleuze opzet, ongemeen geestige personages en ingenieuze scenes in een plot met een heerlijke traagheid van een meanderende rivier, en dat alles in een historische context.


Wil dit boek absoluut herlezen en dan meteen deel twee aanvatten.

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Człowiek bez właściwości" to powieść, która w doskonały sposób ukazuje psychologizm tytułowego bohatera. Ulrich spychany jest przez swojego ojca i jego towarzystwo do wzorców i ról, w jakich chcieliby inni go widzieć. On jednak czuje się w tym źle i odmawia uczestnictwa w świecie konwencji, do którego nie chce przynależeć. Ulrich jest postacią, która znajduje się na styku starych wzorców życia, jego celem nie jest jednak znalezienie sensu życia, ale jego bezustanne poszukiwanie.

[Indigotulip]

Interested to start this book. A very interesting discussion about the translation - that the earlier is MUCH better (more powerful, interesting and possibly less accessible) than the recent translation.

[Kjartan Emilsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insight into the mind of early 20th century Vienna

I like this book because it gives a nearly contemporaneous analysis of thought and culture at a pivotal moment in Europe. Want to read more.

[Arne-Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zie deel 3