Preface

Summary

Robert Musil's reputation has grown steadily since his death in 1942; if experts were asked to list the major figures in German literature since the turn of the century, there is little doubt that they would rank Musil with Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Bert Brecht and Rainer Maria Rilke as being one of the most important. His work is a central contribution to twentieth-century Austrian and German culture and is frequently quoted by historians who value the irony and succinctness of his formulations and the accuracy and depth of his insights. In view of Musil's importance within the context of European literature, it is not necessary to apologise for the present book which is concerned primarily with the interpretation of Musil's incomplete masterpiece, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man without Qualities). However, I am conscious, of course, that this is not the only study of Musil's work written particularly with English-speaking readers in mind. Anglo-Saxon scholarship can be proud of the collective contribution of Burton Pike, Frederick Peters, David Luft and Hannah Hickmann to our understanding of Musil's literary work, for they were all inspired, not only with enthusiasm for Musil but with a desire to be intermediaries between the reader, whether expert or not, and the given text. This study is, however, the only one published in English which offers a general introduction to The Man without Qualities.

Not only is the contribution of Musil to German literature itself worthy of continuing re-evaluation, but the huge growth in critical work on Musil means that our knowledge of the author requires constant up-dating.