The Man Without Qualities
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The Man Without Qualities
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Narrated by:
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John Telfer
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By:
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Robert Musil
About this listen
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
A classic of the 20th century, Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) is endlessly thought-provoking, insightful and stimulating. Part satire, part visionary epic, part intellectual tour de force, it is a work of immeasurable importance. In fact, The Man Without Qualities is one of the peaks of European modernist literature, along with Joyce’s Ulysses and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, though with its own distinct character.
First and foremost, it is a novel where the ‘plot’ largely provides the riverbank down which the river can flow—fortunate with a work that, despite its considerable length, is unfinished! This may explain why it is less known, less read and less championed than its more famous peers, but those who do take the trouble to dive in are astonished. For a start, though often dense in content, it is generally accessible and often a delight to read—furthermore, it is both engrossing and fun. It is not surprising that Musil (1880-1942) was contemporaneous with Freud, whose psychoanalytic ideas emerge in various ways throughout the novel. So do the shades of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and others who provide a philosophical backdrop—this is a great novel of ideas.
There are curiosities also, such as the sex-murderer Moosbrugger, who casts a dark but fascinating shadow over Ulrich’s society. And there is a variety of women with whom Ulrich interacts. There are girlfriends of passing involvement, such as Leona and Bonadea; there is Clarisse, wife of a close friend, and Diotima, seemingly a pillar of Viennese society. And his sister Agathe. They all act as challenging foils in any number of ways to tempt and undermine Ulrich’s sense of who he is.
Musil began writing The Man Without Qualities in 1921 and was still writing and revising it at his death (in Switzerland) in 1942. It is divided into three parts, which were published by 1933 though an English translation of all three parts did not appear until 1961. This recording features the latest (and exemplary) translation by Sophie Wilkins. In addition, it contains 20 chapters, prolonging part III, which were discovered in the mass of papers decades after Musil’s death. He intended to include them, but ultimately held them back for minor revisions.
This remarkable book, available for the first time on audio, is superbly read by John Telfer, who reflects the ‘decaying fin de siècle’ world as the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the old order, slides into oblivion.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©1995 Alfred A. Knopf (P)2022 Ukemi Productions LtdListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Man Without Qualities
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Hip Hopera
- 31-12-22
A well narrated modern classic
I have long wanted to read this book, and am really pleased it is available in audio, as my sight is not what it used to be. I am so pleased it is available here, and it is wonderfully narrated.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
the brainy man's Joe Rogan
Nietzsche, and those other crazy guys, wasn't the only clever man with deep and profound cleverdickie observations. This audio is really clever. Helped by a great performance by the reader. The flower of Vienna and German culture is in this audio. Indeed, Man Without Qualities is really a selection of brainy musings, but not gym listening material, rather, lying in bed or taking a stroll though the park listening.
You get the point of view of humanity living at the, for them, end of the world (1913). Not much of a story, but, like listening to the Joe Rogan podcast for the entertaining banter and cool observations, but with the IQ of those pesky Huns! Man Without Qualities is like a podcast with Thomas Mann chatting to Friedrich Nietzsche about his everyday observations!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A. Milewski
- 13-12-23
A splendid, albeit somewhat sexist rendition
Overall, this is an undeniably great production. The book is an undisputed masterpiece. I only wish that the female voices were read without the undue effort to feminize the otherwise masculine voice. There is no need to introduce this sort of artificial modulation/dramatization - for one person to imitate voices of others, especially another gender. A man with a deep, eloquent voice makes a mistake to pretend he suddenly turned into a young girl. It ridicules, diminishes and - in my view - undermines the female characters when presented in this fashion. I also think that the stress on the ironic tone is a notch too excessive at times. Some fragments no doubt require such sonority, but some other fragments don't - they are serious, solemn, psychologically driven. There is no need to make them sound entertaining - they are not meant to be. All this said, what a great book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Abusam
- 05-11-22
Hats off to John Telfer (the narrator)
At sixty hours this is a daunting listen and an even harder read.
I read along in the book while listening to the narration.
Thanks to the brilliant narration you get drawn in to the characters, while being amazed at some of the profundities in the text.
I approached the end with some dread, only to find there is another 8 hours of extra material on the audio of incomplete chapters.
Listening to this was my literary highlight of the year.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Daniel Alexander
- 14-04-22
Finally!
I was looking for an audio version of this book; as a practical way of digesting this masterpiece...The narration is, really, very good, but being too privileged and experienced, alas, I deduct one star as its excellence is just below the foremost in the field (a handful of people in the world).
As to the work itself, it is as relevant now as it was then. Western civilization, despite its seeming successes, has been collapsing since the beginning of WWI and our entrance into the so-called postmodern era; this work affords a background for the reasons therefore. As we, in the 21 century, are too enmeshed in the processes of the collapse; Musil´s writings provide a cleaner, less contaminated window into its failings; the motives, now as then, are all the same.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JCM
- 21-05-23
Astonishing book, excellent narration
How to explain The Man Without Qualities? An Austrian Jeeves and Wooster with philosophy?
It's a book about the modern condition written a century ago, yet still astonishingly contemporary. Humourous but serious. Pretentious but accessible (despite the vast length). Full of deep, insightful ideas and profound quotes to be lifted from every page - which are swiftly undermined as ridiculous or naïve by the author almost in the same breath. It's so long, with so many digressions (hell, the entire book is arguably a digression) that it ends up being about everything and nothing.
Unfinished and, perhaps, incoherent, but somehow this is deeply appropriate to its themes. This is, after all, a book set in Austria in 1913, about attempts to plan grand jubilee celebrations of the Austro-Hungarian empire and Habsburgs for five years later. Everything in this book is - with our knowledge of what happens next - utterly futile. There's no happily ever after for anyone or anything in it. And as none of the characters are really that sympathetic, it's kinda hard to care.
And despite all that, it's constantly amusing. Constantly engaging. And the narrator of this audiobook edition - which includes much of the posthumous papers which are incredibly hard (and expensive) to track down in print - is good enough I'd kinda like him to narrate everything.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 10-09-24
Hard to rate.
I found parts of this book very good and very interesting, however there are some sub plots and story threads I just could not get invested into. I think this is made 'worse' by the fact it was never finished and some of the threads were never fully realised.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- That Man
- 14-02-24
What stood out most? Tedium
I decided to listen to this book, as it was one I had bought as a student, in the 1980s, but never got round to reading (I still have the paperback volume on a shelf somewhere). Goodness me! Talk about 'without qualities'. Nothing, but nothing, will entice me to listen further than the handful of chapters I endured. Not for me!
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