Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften

Mann ohne Eigenschaften, Der, an unfinished novel by R. Musil. Begun in 1924, the First Book, of 123 chapters, was published in 1930. The general structure was indicated at the end of this volume. The Erstes Buch, composed of the Erster Teil: Eine Art Einleitung and the Zweiter Teil: Seines Gleichen geschieht, were to be followed by the Zweites Buch comprising Dritter Teil: Die Verbrecher (for which Musil had at one time in mind the alternative title Das tausendjährige Reich) and Vierter Teil: Eine Art Ende. The intended structure was symmetrical, the first and fourth parts being relatively short, and the third and fourth inordinately long. A second volume appeared in 1933, containing only the first 38 chapters of Bk. II, Third Pt. Musil was still working at it when he died, and a further volume, described as Dritter Band, was published in 1943 by his widow, leaving much MS. material unpublished. The entire incomplete novel was published in 1952 by A. Frisé, whose arrangement of the difficult additional material encountered criticism. The novel in this form comprises about 1, 600 pages, of which the original Erstes Buch of 1930 occupies 680 pages. The Zweites Buch, so far as it goes, has 128 chapters, of which 49 are newly added or interpolated by Frisé in a hypothetical sequence.

This immense torso has an action, which changes direction at the beginning of Bk. II. The Introduction unveils the figure of Ulrich, ‘the man without qualities’, explains his detached and independent situation, contrasts him with his friends the married couple Walter and Clarisse, and expresses his interest and somewhat detached sympathy for the condemned sex-murderer, Moosbrugger. In the second part, Ulrich finds himself secretary to the ‘Parallelaktion’, which is to prepare a jubilee celebration for the seventieth anniversary of the accession of the Emperor Franz Joseph in 1918 eclipsing the celebration, planned in the German Empire, for the thirtieth year of the accession of Wilhelm II. The irony underlying these two operations, begun in 1913, can escape no reader, since both nations were involved in war in the following year, Franz Joseph died in 1916 aged 86, and Wilhelm II was deposed in the year intended for celebration. The ‘Parallelaktion’ in particular allows Musil to set forth an elaborate, highly intellectualized portrait of the Austria of his day, with a reflection of the German Empire in the character of the Prussian industrialist Arnheim (based on W. Rathenau). The shallowness of the glittering Austrian society is revealed, the foibles and futilities of human beings exposed in the many subsidiary figures, especially Walter, Clarisse, Bonadea, Diotima, Graf Leinsdorf, and Direktor Leo Fischl; the sombre forces below the surface are realized in Moosbrugger.

In the Second Book, Ulrich, after his father's death, turns to his married sister Agathe, whom he had hitherto disregarded. They become absorbed in each other in an incestuous love, which is an attempt to escape from the world and may be interpreted as a symbol of return to the womb. Ulrich is himself clearly related to Musil, and his innate repulsion of qualities (Eigenschaften) is an encapsulation against surrounding reality.

The novel is brilliantly written, with wit, urbanity, and searching analysis, but Ulrich regards all around him in a curiously dispassionate way. Excessively egocentric, Musil worked unceasingly in the endeavour to produce a masterpiece of outstanding quality. The work may be seen as an enormous sequence of essays, among which is a well-known ironical, yet sympathetic, lament for the old Austria (Kakanien, ch. 8, the name being derived from the abbreviation k. k.).