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jensbrede's review against another edition
5.0
Musil brach die Offizierslaufbahn ab und legte daraufhin sein Examen in Maschinenbau ab, bevor er nach seinem 2 Jährigen Militärdienst dann Philosophie und Psychologie studierte. Er promovierte als Philosoph, lehnte die Ihm angebotene Habilitation aber ab um freiberuflicher Schriftsteller zu werden. Musil hatte solch prominente Fürsprecher wie [a:Thomas Mann|19405|Thomas Mann|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1430109860p2/19405.jpg] und wird in der Deutschsprachigen Literatur in eine Reihe mit [a:Hermann Broch|15386|Hermann Broch|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1422366747p2/15386.jpg], [a:Franz Kafka|5223|Franz Kafka|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1412460277p2/5223.jpg], [a:Elias Canetti|6517|Elias Canetti|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407738797p2/6517.jpg] und anderen gestellt.
Das unvollendete Werk "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" ist Musils magnum opus und Musils Werke sind kostenlos z.B. auf Projekt Gutenberg zu finden.
Ich habe etwa ein gutes Jahr gebraucht um die ersten zwei Bände des Mannes ohne Eigenschaften zu lesen. Diese lange Zeit liegt nicht etwa an dem Unvermögen Musils zu schreiben - im Gegenteil, der Bilderreichtum, Witz, und mit typisch österreichischem Charme durchdrungene Stiel könnte das Beste sein was ich je in deutscher Sprache gelesen haben - sondern an der unglaublichen Komplexität - in der sich alle Aspekte Musils Ausbildung und früheren Lebens wiederspiegeln - und Dichte dieses Buches.
Wie viele andere Klassiker, hat der Mann ohne Eigenschaften auch eine kaum erwähnenswerte Handlung und besteht im wesentlichen in einer Aneinanderreihung von (teilweise) autobiographischen Anekdoten des Autors in denen er die Welt, den Menschen, das Denken und vor allem die Moral beschreibt.
Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften ist ein Werk an das [a:Henry David Thoreau|10264|Henry David Thoreau|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1392432620p2/10264.jpg] gedacht haben könnte als dieser über das Lesen schrieb:
In diesem Sinne kann ich jedem der bereit ist sich auf Musils Meisterwerk einzulassen nur raten sich dieser noblen Übung hinzugeben.
Das unvollendete Werk "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften" ist Musils magnum opus und Musils Werke sind kostenlos z.B. auf Projekt Gutenberg zu finden.
Ich habe etwa ein gutes Jahr gebraucht um die ersten zwei Bände des Mannes ohne Eigenschaften zu lesen. Diese lange Zeit liegt nicht etwa an dem Unvermögen Musils zu schreiben - im Gegenteil, der Bilderreichtum, Witz, und mit typisch österreichischem Charme durchdrungene Stiel könnte das Beste sein was ich je in deutscher Sprache gelesen haben - sondern an der unglaublichen Komplexität - in der sich alle Aspekte Musils Ausbildung und früheren Lebens wiederspiegeln - und Dichte dieses Buches.
Wie viele andere Klassiker, hat der Mann ohne Eigenschaften auch eine kaum erwähnenswerte Handlung und besteht im wesentlichen in einer Aneinanderreihung von (teilweise) autobiographischen Anekdoten des Autors in denen er die Welt, den Menschen, das Denken und vor allem die Moral beschreibt.
Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften ist ein Werk an das [a:Henry David Thoreau|10264|Henry David Thoreau|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1392432620p2/10264.jpg] gedacht haben könnte als dieser über das Lesen schrieb:
“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.”
In diesem Sinne kann ich jedem der bereit ist sich auf Musils Meisterwerk einzulassen nur raten sich dieser noblen Übung hinzugeben.
matthewmansell's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
spencer_wright's review
4.0
It was a little boring, but so good! I'm so sad he died before finishing it
kilburnadam's review against another edition
5.0
This review is for the Picador edition. translated by Shophie Wilkins and Burton Pike.
I don't know how people found books to read before the internet and Goodreads. Goodreads has been recommending me this book for a very long time. Finally I've managed to read it.
Anyway about the book:
This is posibilly the most accessible, inspiring, and influential philosophy book that I've read. It's also a novel. So it has a plot and characters. The book covers many concepts, themes, and ideas. Some of the themes include morality, experience, truth and opinion.
There are many allusions to Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Which I got because I've read many of their books. But unfortunately I haven't read enough Goethe to get the allusions to him. I've only actually read Faust Part 1.
The book is supposedly incomplete. But without giving anything away. I found the ending more than adequate. Unlike the disappointing ending to other incomplete novels. Like The Castle by Franz Kafka. And Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. But like many people have said before. It's a novel of ideas so the ending isn't really that important.
I'll definitely be reading this book many times again. As there is so much to absorb. That one read really isn't sufficient enough.
If The Man Without Qualities had a fight with In Search of Lost Time. The Man Without Qualities Would kick it's ass.
I don't know how people found books to read before the internet and Goodreads. Goodreads has been recommending me this book for a very long time. Finally I've managed to read it.
Anyway about the book:
This is posibilly the most accessible, inspiring, and influential philosophy book that I've read. It's also a novel. So it has a plot and characters. The book covers many concepts, themes, and ideas. Some of the themes include morality, experience, truth and opinion.
There are many allusions to Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Which I got because I've read many of their books. But unfortunately I haven't read enough Goethe to get the allusions to him. I've only actually read Faust Part 1.
The book is supposedly incomplete. But without giving anything away. I found the ending more than adequate. Unlike the disappointing ending to other incomplete novels. Like The Castle by Franz Kafka. And Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. But like many people have said before. It's a novel of ideas so the ending isn't really that important.
I'll definitely be reading this book many times again. As there is so much to absorb. That one read really isn't sufficient enough.
If The Man Without Qualities had a fight with In Search of Lost Time. The Man Without Qualities Would kick it's ass.
e_f_p21's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
erdbeerfan20's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
Just hugged me poetically and changed my view on what books can be.
trouvaille21's review
2.0
i really don't undestand why the ratings for this book are so high
it confused me so much that u felt like i didn't understand the message properly and read a few extra summaries and ????
idk it has potential but i really can't bring myself to give it more than 2 stars
it confused me so much that u felt like i didn't understand the message properly and read a few extra summaries and ????
idk it has potential but i really can't bring myself to give it more than 2 stars
frasersimons's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Unsurprisingly, this unfinished book never really comes together. It’s experimental and interesting, easily digestible, concerned with modern modernity’s effect in man. It’s not that surprising that it’s seems well loved. Especially with the mammoth effect, where people seem to want to ascribe a lot more value to things they spend a lot more time on, and finish, like huge novels such as this.
Interestingly, my major gripes are similar to The Brothers Karamazov, which has similar very long-winded diatribes on philosophical notions. But the actual fiction suffers to it because the authors pay no mind to time and place during these many, many outings. Especially in regards to time, people will launch into speeches that would literally take hours upon hours to conclude, with generally no back-and-forth, and it’ll have been during the course of an appetizer. It becomes abundantly clear that this is even worse than all that, as this is less concerned with plot than other Idea books (certainly Brothers K, which has a large plot component, even if it’s overlong).
This is where the experimental components come in. Kind of like the newest effort from McCarthy, the path of the novel is more on a meta level, with the notions of certain things evolving. But they don’t actually get anywhere, because it can’t, as it’s not got an even remote conclusion. Nor would it have had had it been finished, because many of the concerns are questions that don’t have definitive answers. And the ones that do, the books one-note characters completely miss anyway. My favourite is when they talk on, what essentially amounts to moral relativism, as these authors seem to always want to do. As if there is no way to quantifiably see how morals work because they’re social constructs.
There are metrics that are very plain and easy, but always eschewed by people pontificating. Do your decisions, does your society, remove agency from other people? What is the disparity in wealth? What is the general health? How does it treat the disenfranchised? It’s not as though this was written in the medieval ages, it was begun in 1980s if I recall correctly. The characters going into the same musings and coming to shallow thoughts like they do is inexcusable for a book of ideas. It’s unsurprising that there’s a thick not of misogyny that runs through it as well, then.
The women are poorly written and the narrative constantly makes asides of poor conceived judgment on women and their so-called natures, with a laughable gesture at equality near the end when it shows them persecuted for having the same sex drive as a man, and being judged for it. Had it not been constantly undermined and dominated by male voices projecting their feelings as empirical evidence as to how women function, perhaps it would have been more palatable.
What’s more is that, unfortunately, it’s all very forgettable as well. The delivery is oiled well enough, but it’s hard to recall any conversation that makes a significant impact because there is no book-end to the delivery, nothing to ground the discussion or the idea to anything else. It’s a non-stop train where the discussions are nothing more than the trees a passaenger notices whipping by on the way to more trees upon trees upon trees. And the passenger never actually reached anywhere, so the trip is completely unmemorable.
Interestingly, my major gripes are similar to The Brothers Karamazov, which has similar very long-winded diatribes on philosophical notions. But the actual fiction suffers to it because the authors pay no mind to time and place during these many, many outings. Especially in regards to time, people will launch into speeches that would literally take hours upon hours to conclude, with generally no back-and-forth, and it’ll have been during the course of an appetizer. It becomes abundantly clear that this is even worse than all that, as this is less concerned with plot than other Idea books (certainly Brothers K, which has a large plot component, even if it’s overlong).
This is where the experimental components come in. Kind of like the newest effort from McCarthy, the path of the novel is more on a meta level, with the notions of certain things evolving. But they don’t actually get anywhere, because it can’t, as it’s not got an even remote conclusion. Nor would it have had had it been finished, because many of the concerns are questions that don’t have definitive answers. And the ones that do, the books one-note characters completely miss anyway. My favourite is when they talk on, what essentially amounts to moral relativism, as these authors seem to always want to do. As if there is no way to quantifiably see how morals work because they’re social constructs.
There are metrics that are very plain and easy, but always eschewed by people pontificating. Do your decisions, does your society, remove agency from other people? What is the disparity in wealth? What is the general health? How does it treat the disenfranchised? It’s not as though this was written in the medieval ages, it was begun in 1980s if I recall correctly. The characters going into the same musings and coming to shallow thoughts like they do is inexcusable for a book of ideas. It’s unsurprising that there’s a thick not of misogyny that runs through it as well, then.
The women are poorly written and the narrative constantly makes asides of poor conceived judgment on women and their so-called natures, with a laughable gesture at equality near the end when it shows them persecuted for having the same sex drive as a man, and being judged for it. Had it not been constantly undermined and dominated by male voices projecting their feelings as empirical evidence as to how women function, perhaps it would have been more palatable.
What’s more is that, unfortunately, it’s all very forgettable as well. The delivery is oiled well enough, but it’s hard to recall any conversation that makes a significant impact because there is no book-end to the delivery, nothing to ground the discussion or the idea to anything else. It’s a non-stop train where the discussions are nothing more than the trees a passaenger notices whipping by on the way to more trees upon trees upon trees. And the passenger never actually reached anywhere, so the trip is completely unmemorable.