The Man Without Qualities ( German : Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften ; 1930–1943) is an unfinished modernist novel in three volumes and various drafts, by the Austrian writer Robert Musil .
105-564: The novel is a "story of ideas", which takes place in the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy 's last days, and the plot often veers into allegorical digressions on a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. It has a particular concern with the values of truth and opinion and how society organizes ideas about life and society. The book is well over a thousand pages long in its entirety, and no one single theme dominates. Part I, titled A Sort of Introduction ,
210-811: A defensive alliance with Germany in October 1879 and in May 1882. In October 1882 Italy joined this partnership in the Triple Alliance largely because of Italy's imperial rivalries with France. Tensions between Russia and Austria–Hungary remained high, so Bismarck replaced the League of the Three Emperors with the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia to keep the Habsburgs from recklessly starting
315-528: A common holding of Cisleithania and Transleithania under the control of the Imperial & Royal finance ministry rather than attaching it to either territorial government. The annexation in 1908 led some in Vienna to contemplate combining Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia to form a third Slavic component of the monarchy. The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian (1867), and his only son, Rudolf , made
420-467: A festival which will capture the minds of the Austrian Emperor's subjects and people of the world forever. On that account, many bright and vague ideas and visions are discussed (e.g., The Year of Austria, The World Year, The Austrian Peace Year or The Austrian World Peace Year). A couple of people take part in the organization team or catch the eye of Ulrich. Ermelinda Tuzzi, called Diotima ,
525-587: A greater than expected loss of men in the invasion of Serbia. Furthermore, it became evident that the Austrian high command had had no plans for possible continental war and that the army and navy were also ill-equipped to handle such a conflict. In the last two years of the war the Austro-Hungarian armed forces lost all ability to act independently of Germany. As of 7 September 1916, the German emperor
630-416: A high casualty rate, and by the army's composition of multiple ethnicities with different languages and customs. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated and governmental failure on the homefront ended popular support for the war. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed with dramatic speed in the autumn of 1918. Leftist and pacifist political movements organized strikes in factories, and uprisings in
735-606: A large South Slav state in the 1917 Corfu Declaration signed by members of the Yugoslav Committee . The Croatians had begun disregarding orders from Budapest earlier in October. Lansing's response was, in effect, the death certificate of Austria–Hungary. During the Italian battles, the Czechoslovaks and Southern Slavs declared their independence. With defeat in the war imminent after the Italian offensive in
840-675: A predominantly Muslim special militia known as the Schutzkorps was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs. Some members of the government, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Leopold Berchtold and Army Commander Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , had wanted to confront the resurgent Serbian nation for some years in a preventive war, but the Emperor and Hungarian prime minister István Tisza were opposed. The foreign ministry of Austro-Hungarian Empire sent ambassador László Szőgyény to Potsdam , where he inquired about
945-471: A share in the management of their own affairs by means of a local representative assembly. In performance of this promise a constitution was promulgated in 1910. The principal players in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908-09 were the foreign ministers of Austria and Russia, Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal and Alexander Izvolsky . Both were motivated by political ambition; the first would emerge successful, and
1050-688: A small north-western portion of the former kingdom's territory. Eventually, following the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, all former territories of the Hungarian kingdom were ceded from the Ottomans to the Habsburgs. In the revolutions of 1848 , the Kingdom of Hungary called for greater self-government and later even independence from the Austrian Empire . The ensuing Hungarian Revolution of 1848
1155-588: A total force of 450,000 men. However, in the autumn of 1915, the Serbian Army was defeated by the Central Powers, which led to the occupation of Serbia. Near the end of 1915, in a massive rescue operation involving more than 1,000 trips made by Italian, French and British steamers, 260,000 Serb surviving soldiers were transported to Brindisi and Corfu , where they waited for the chance of the victory of Allied Powers to reclaim their country. Corfu hosted
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#17327984284821260-630: A war over Pan-Slavism. The Sandžak-Raška / Novibazar region was under Austro-Hungarian occupation between 1878 and 1909, when it was returned to the Ottoman Empire, before being ultimately divided between kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia . On the heels of the Great Balkan Crisis, Austro-Hungarian forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the monarchy eventually annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908 as
1365-456: Is Ulrich's cousin as well as the wife of a civil servant; she tries to become a Viennese muse of philosophy, inspiring whomever she invites to her salon ; she brings both Ulrich and Arnheim, a Prussian business magnate and prosaic writer (whose character is based on the figure of Walter Rathenau ) into her sphere. The nobleman in charge of the Campaign, the old conservative Count Leinsdorf,
1470-907: Is a meditation on the plight of the little man lost in a great machine. One of Europe's unquestioned 20th-century masterpieces." Q. In alcuni tuoi scritti degli anni Sessanta – penso soprattutto a Certi romanzi – la riflessione critica sulla questione del romanzo (che cosa è il romanzo, cosa l’antiromanzo, come si può e come si deve scrivere un’opera in prosa...) è sempre intrecciata, quando in modo più implicito, quando in modo più esplicito con la riflessione sul cinema. In particolare mi pare che la tua vicinanza con Fellini sia particolarmente significativa, per esempio nella tua recensione di Otto e mezzo per « Il Giorno ». A. Stavamo leggendo Musil e scoprivamo dei paralleli e dei procedimenti simili. E senza poter stabilire, né allora, né oggi, quanto ci fosse di Flaiano e quanto, invece, fosse proprio una intuizione sua. English translation: Q. In some of your writings of
1575-416: Is an introduction to the protagonist, a 32-year-old mathematician named Ulrich who is in search of a sense of life and reality but fails to find it. His ambivalence towards morals and indifference to life has brought him to the state of being "a man without qualities", depending on the outer world to form his character. A kind of keenly analytical passivity is his most typical attitude. Musil once said that it
1680-438: Is incapable of deciding or even of not-deciding. General Stumm von Bordwehr of the Imperial and Royal Army is unpopular for his attempts in this generally mystical atmosphere to push the Campaign in a martial direction whereas German businessman Paul Arnheim, while an admirer of Diotima's combination of beauty and spirit, doesn't feel the need to marry her. While most of the participants (Diotima most feverishly) try to associate
1785-589: Is not particularly difficult to describe Ulrich in his main features. Ulrich himself only knows he is strangely indifferent to all his qualities. Lack of any profound essence and ambiguity as a general attitude to life are his principal characteristics. Meanwhile, we meet a murderer and rapist, Moosbrugger, who is condemned for his murder of a prostitute. Other protagonists are Ulrich's mistress, Bonadea, and Clarisse, his friend Walter's neurotic wife, whose refusal to go along with commonplace existence leads to her insanity. In Part II, Pseudoreality Prevails , Ulrich joins
1890-701: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 led to the dissolution of the German Confederation (of which the Habsburg emperor was the hereditary president) and the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. These twin defeats gave the Hungarians the opportunity to remove the shackles of absolutist rule. Realizing the need to compromise with Hungary in order to retain its great power status, the central government in Vienna began negotiations with
1995-615: The Bolshevik Revolution and Russians ended their involvement in the war , Germans and Austrians were able to move on the Western and Southern fronts much manpower from the erstwhile Eastern fighting. On 24 October 1917, Austrians (now enjoying decisive German support) attacked at Caporetto using new infiltration tactics; although they advanced more than 100 km (62.14 mi) in the direction of Venice and gained considerable supplies, they were halted and could not cross
2100-666: The Isonzo river, hoping to seize Ljubljana, and to eventually threaten Vienna. However, the Royal Italian Army were halted on the river, where four battles took place over five months (23 June – 2 December 1915). The fight was extremely bloody and exhausting for both the contenders. On 15 May 1916, the Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Strafexpedition (" punitive expedition "):
2205-603: The Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Italy were also recognized by the victorious powers in 1920. The realm's official name was in German : Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie and in Hungarian : Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia (English: Austro-Hungarian Monarchy ), though in international relations Austria–Hungary was used (German: Österreich-Ungarn ; Hungarian: Ausztria-Magyarország ). The Austrians also used
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#17327984284822310-524: The Piave river. Italy, although suffering massive casualties, recovered from the blow, and a coalition government under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was formed. Italy also enjoyed support by the Entente powers: by 1918, large amounts of war materials and a few auxiliary American, British, and French divisions arrived in the Italian battle zone. Cadorna was replaced by General Armando Diaz ; under his command,
2415-515: The Treaty of San Stefano tried to create a large pro-Russian Bulgaria. This treaty sparked an international uproar that almost resulted in a general European war. Austria–Hungary and Britain feared that a large Bulgaria would become a Russian satellite that would enable the tsar to dominate the Balkans. British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli moved warships into position against Russia to halt
2520-497: The beau monde to the demi-monde , including an aristocrat, an army officer, a banker, three bourgeois wives, an intriguing chambermaid, a black pageboy, and last but not least a man who murders a prostitute. The novel is told in the third-person omniscient point of view. According to Italian writer Alberto Arbasino , Federico Fellini 's film 8½ (1963) used similar artistic procedures and had parallels with Musil's novel. Musil's aim (and that of his main character, Ulrich)
2625-538: The war with Russia . Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending the World War I, in spite of the previous initial total dependence of the kingdom on its sponsors, it ultimately served against their intentions as the cornerstone proto state of the nascent Second Polish Republic , the latter composed also of territories never intended by the Central Powers to be ceded to Poland. The Battle of Zborov (1917)
2730-511: The " German question " in favor of a Lesser German Solution . Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust , who was the foreign minister from 1866 to 1871, hated the Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck , who had repeatedly outmaneuvered him. Beust looked to France for avenging Austria's defeat and attempted to negotiate with Emperor Napoleon III of France and Italy for an anti-Prussian alliance, but no terms could be reached. The decisive victory of
2835-459: The 1867 reforms, the Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies. For these purposes, "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence were maintained under the monarch's direct authority, as was a third finance ministry responsible only for financing the two "common" portfolios. A third component of the union was the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia , an autonomous region under
2940-650: The Allies and Germany . The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during WWI. General von Hötzendorf was the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. Franz Joseph I, who was much too old to command the army, appointed Archduke Friedrich von Österreich-Teschen as Supreme Army Commander (Armeeoberkommandant), but asked him to give Von Hötzendorf freedom to take any decisions. Von Hötzendorf remained in effective command of
3045-661: The Allies, but his initiatives were vetoed by Italy. The heavily rural Empire did have a small industrial base, but its major contribution was manpower and food. Nevertheless, Austria–Hungary was more urbanized (25%) than its actual opponents in the First World War, like the Russian Empire (13.4%), Serbia (13.2%) or Romania (18.8%). Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had also more industrialized economy and higher GDP per capita than
3150-456: The Allies, whereby the entire war could be ended by compromise, or perhaps Austria would make a separate peace from Germany. The main effort was vetoed by Italy, which had been promised large slices of Austria for joining the Allies in 1915. Austria was only willing to turn over the Trentino region but nothing more. Karl was seen as a defeatist, which weakened his standing at home and with both
3255-530: The Austrian writer and translator Ernst Kaiser . They collaborated together on translations and the study of the works of Robert Musil , including the first English translation of The Man Without Qualities . In 1953 she had a research fellowship at Bedford College in London, then went to Rome with Kaiser on a grant from the Bollingen Foundation to study Musil's estate. In 1967 or 1968, she
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3360-616: The Austrians broke through the opposing front and occupied the Asiago plateau . The Italians managed to resist and in a counteroffensive seized Gorizia on 9 August. Nonetheless, they had to stop on the Carso , a few kilometres away from the border. At this point, several months of indecisive trench warfare ensued (analogous to the Western front ). As the Russian Empire collapsed as a result of
3465-677: The Austro-Hungarian Army, under a unified command with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. From June 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the Austro-Hungarian army in the Brusilov Offensive , recognizing the numerical inferiority of the Austro-Hungarian army. By the end of September 1916, Austria–Hungary mobilized and concentrated new divisions, and the successful Russian advance
3570-460: The Balkan rebels and so pressured the tsar's government to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877 in the name of protecting Orthodox Christians. Unable to mediate between the Ottoman Empire and Russia over the control of Serbia, Austria–Hungary declared neutrality when the conflict between the two powers escalated into a war . With help from Romania and Greece, Russia defeated the Ottomans and with
3675-699: The Battle of Vittorio Veneto on 24 October, Czech politicians peacefully took over command in Prague on 28 October (later declared the birth of Czechoslovakia) and followed up in other major cities in the next few days. On 30 October, the Slovaks did the same. On 29 October, the Slavs in both portions of what remained of Austria–Hungary proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and declared that their ultimate intention
3780-628: The Bulgarians, who turned instead to Russia and Serbia. Although Austria had no intention to embark on additional expansion to the south, Aehrenthal encouraged speculation to that effect, expecting that it would paralyze the Balkan states. Instead, it incited them to feverish activity to create a defensive block to stop Austria. A series of grave miscalculations at the highest level thus significantly strengthened Austria's enemies. In 1914, Slavic militants in Bosnia rejected Austria's plan to fully absorb
3885-535: The Central Powers formed by the Austro-Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, and Ottoman armies, had defeated the Romanian and Russian armies of the Entente Powers, and occupied the southern part of Romania (including Oltenia , Muntenia and Dobruja ). Within three months of the war, the Central Powers came near Bucharest, the Romanian capital city. On 6 December, the Central Powers captured Bucharest , and part of
3990-458: The Congress of Berlin in 1878 Gyula Andrássy (Minister of Foreign Affairs) managed to force Russia to retreat from further demands in the Balkans. As a result, Greater Bulgaria was broken up and Serbian independence was guaranteed. In that year, with Britain's support, Austria–Hungary stationed troops in Bosnia to prevent the Russians from expanding into nearby Serbia. In another measure to keep
4095-581: The Emperor's formal coronation as King of Hungary on 8 June had to have taken place in order for the laws to be enacted within the lands of the Holy Crown of Hungary . On 28 July, Franz Joseph, in his new capacity as King of Hungary, approved and promulgated the new laws, which officially gave birth to the Dual Monarchy. The Austro-Prussian War was ended by the Peace of Prague (1866) which settled
4200-402: The Emperor's nephew, Franz Ferdinand , heir to the throne. The Archduke was rumoured to have been an advocate for this trialism as a means to limit the power of the Hungarian aristocracy. A proclamation issued on the occasion of its annexation to the Habsburg monarchy in October 1908 promised these lands constitutional institutions, which should secure to their inhabitants full civil rights and
4305-610: The Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland , envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers , with the nominal authority vested in the Regency Council . The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for
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4410-599: The Hungarian crown, which negotiated the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement in 1868. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian joint military and civilian rule until it was fully annexed in 1908, provoking the Bosnian crisis . Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I , which began with an Austro-Hungarian war declaration on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914. It
4515-554: The Hungarian political leaders, led by Ferenc Deák . The Hungarians maintained that the April Laws were still valid, but conceded that under the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 , foreign affairs and defence were "common" to Austria and Hungary. On 20 March 1867, the newly re-established Hungarian parliament at Pest started to negotiate the new laws to be accepted on 30 March. However, Hungarian leaders received word that
4620-601: The Italians retook the initiative and won the decisive Battle of the Piave river (15–23 June 1918), in which some 60,000 Austrian and 43,000 Italian soldiers were killed. The final battle at Vittorio Veneto was lost by 31 October 1918 and the armistice was signed at Villa Giusti on 3 November. On 27 August 1916, Romania declared war against Austria–Hungary. The Romanian Army crossed the borders of Eastern Hungary (Transylvania), and despite initial successes, by November 1916,
4725-435: The Kingdom of Hungary comprised only 42% of the population of Austria–Hungary, the thin majority – more than 3.8 million soldiers – of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were conscripted from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War. Roughly 600,000 soldiers were killed in action, and 700,000 soldiers were wounded in the war. Austria–Hungary held on for years, as the Hungarian half provided sufficient supplies for
4830-510: The Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the far most developed actual opponent of the Empire. On the home front, food grew scarcer and scarcer, as did heating fuel. Hungary, with its heavy agricultural base, was somewhat better fed. The Army conquered productive agricultural areas in Romania and elsewhere, but refused to allow food shipments to civilians back home. Morale fell every year, and
4935-588: The Millennium (III) (The Criminals) , and had xxxv+365, vii+454, xi+445 pages respectively. In 1995, Knopf published a two-volume edition (1,774 pages) in translation by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike. Parts I and II are in Vol. 1, while Part III, the twenty galley chapters, and unfinished chapters, are in Vol. 2. Musil's almost daily preoccupation with writing left his family in dire financial straits. The book brought neither fame nor fortune to him or his family. This
5040-539: The Millennium [The Criminals] ) were published in 1930 and 1933 respectively in Berlin. Part III did not include 20 chapters withdrawn from Vol. 2 of 1933 while in printer's galley proofs. From 1933 until death, Musil was working on Part III. In 1943 in Lausanne, Musil's widow Martha published a 462-page collection of material from literary remains including the 20 galley chapters withdrawn from Part III, as well as drafts of
5145-417: The Ottomans. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 let Austria occupy (but not annex) the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a predominantly Slavic area. Austria occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as a way of gaining power in the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became fully independent. Nonetheless, the Balkans remained a site of political unrest with teeming ambition for independence and great power rivalries. At
5250-711: The Prusso-German armies in the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent founding of the German Empire ended all hope of re-establishing Austrian influence in Germany, and Beust retired. After being forced out of Germany and Italy, the Dual Monarchy turned to the Balkans, which were in tumult as nationalistic movements were gaining strength and demanding independence. Both Russia and Austria–Hungary saw an opportunity to expand in this region. Russia took on
5355-501: The Russians out of the Balkans, Austria–Hungary formed an alliance, the Mediterranean Entente, with Britain and Italy in 1887 and concluded mutual defence pacts with Germany in 1879 and Romania in 1883 against a possible Russian attack. Following the Congress of Berlin the European powers attempted to guarantee stability through a complex series of alliances and treaties. Anxious about Balkan instability and Russian aggression, and to counter French interests in Europe, Austria–Hungary forged
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#17327984284825460-407: The Serbian government in exile after the collapse of Serbia and served as a supply base to the Greek front. In April 1916 a large number of Serbian troops were transported in British and French naval vessels from Corfu to mainland Greece. The contingent numbering over 120,000 relieved a much smaller army at the Macedonian front and fought alongside British and French troops. On the Eastern front ,
5565-430: The advance of Russian influence in the eastern Mediterranean so close to Britain's route through the Suez Canal . The Treaty of San Stefano was seen in Austria as much too favourable for Russia and its Orthodox-Slavic goals. The Congress of Berlin rolled back the Russian victory by partitioning the large Bulgarian state that Russia had carved out of Ottoman territory and denying any part of Bulgaria full independence from
5670-405: The aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria on 31 October 1918. One of Europe's major powers at the time, Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire ), while being among the ten most populous countries worldwide. The Empire built up
5775-555: The area; they assassinated the Austrian heir and precipitated World War I. The 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo , excessively intensified the existing traditional religion-based ethnic hostilities in Bosnia. However, in Sarajevo itself, Austrian authorities encouraged violence against the Serb residents, which resulted in the Anti-Serb riots of Sarajevo , in which Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims killed two and damaged numerous Serb-owned buildings. Writer Ivo Andrić referred to
5880-405: The army had become commonplace. As the war went on, the ethnic unity declined; the Allies encouraged breakaway demands from minorities and the Empire faced disintegration. With apparent Allied victory approaching, nationalist movements seized ethnic resentment to erode social unity. The military breakdown of the Italian front marked the start of the rebellion for the numerous ethnicities who made up
5985-534: The character of Diotima. Arnheim may have been based on Walther Rathenau and Thomas Mann . His detailed portrait of a decaying fin de siècle world is similar to those of Hermann Broch 's The Sleepwalkers , Karl Kraus ' The Last Days of Mankind or Stefan Zweig 's The World of Yesterday . Some of Musil's working titles were The Gutters , Achilles (the original name of the main character Ulrich) or The Spy . Musil's monumental novel contains more than 1,700 pages (depending on edition) in three volumes,
6090-437: The diverse nationalities gave up on the Empire and looked for ways to establish their own nation states. Inflation soared, from an index of 129 in 1914 to 1589 in 1918, wiping out the cash savings of the middle-class. In terms of war damage to the economy, the war used up about 20 percent of the GDP. The dead soldiers amounted to about four percent of the 1914 labor force, and the wounded ones to another six percent. Compared all
6195-457: The empire into a federal union to give ethnic groups decentralization and representation. However, on 18 October, United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied that autonomy for the nationalities – the tenth of the Fourteen Points – was no longer enough. In fact, a Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October. The South Slavs in both halves of the monarchy had already declared in favor of uniting with Serbia in
6300-555: The final incomplete chapters and notes on the development and direction of the novel. The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1 was published in English first in 1953 in translation by Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser . Vol. 2 followed in 1955, and 3 – in 1961. (London: Secker & Warburg, 1953, 1954, 1960, first editions , 8vo [Octavo (max. 6x9 inches)]; New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., first US editions ). They were titled: Vol. 1 – A Sort of Introduction , The Like of It Now Happens (I); Vol. 2 – The Like of It Now Happens (II); Vol. 3 – Into
6405-438: The fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world. With the exception of the territory of the Bosnian Condominium , the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary were separate sovereign countries in international law. At its core was the dual monarchy , which was a real union between Cisleithania , the northern and western parts of the former Austrian Empire , and Transleithania (Kingdom of Hungary) . Following
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#17327984284826510-409: The great European novelists of the first third of the century – Marcel Proust , James Joyce , Franz Kafka , Thomas Mann , Virginia Woolf – Robert Musil is far and away the least read; and yet he's as shapely as Gibbon , as mordant as Voltaire , as witty as Oscar Wilde and as indecent as Arthur Schnitzler ." In his best-selling The Long Firm (1999) Jake Arnott references the book through
6615-432: The integrity of the monarchy because of Austro-Hungarian support for Germany. The setbacks that the Austrian army suffered in 1914 and 1915 can be attributed to a large extent by the incompetence of the Austrian high command. After attacking Serbia, its forces soon had to be withdrawn to protect its eastern frontier against Russia's invasion, while German units were engaged in fighting on the Western Front. This resulted in
6720-482: The last of which was published by Musil's wife after his death. The novel is famous for the irony with which Musil depicts Austrian society shortly before World War I . The story takes place in 1913 in Vienna , the capital of Austria-Hungary , which Musil refers to by the playful term Kakanien . The name Kakanien is derived from the German abbreviation K und K (pronounced [ka ʊn ka] ) for kaiserlich und königlich or "Imperial and Royal", used to indicate
6825-494: The latter would be broken by the crisis. Along the way, they would drag Europe to the brink of war in 1909. They would also divide Europe into the two armed camps that would go to war in July 1914. Aehrenthal had started with the assumption that the Slavic minorities could never come together, and the Balkan League would never cause any damage to Austria. He turned down an Ottoman proposal for an alliance that would include Austria, Turkey, and Romania. However, his policies alienated
6930-418: The major countries in the war, the death and casualty rate was toward the high-end regarding the present-day territory of Austria. By summer 1918, " Green Cadres " of army deserters formed armed bands in the hills of Croatia-Slavonia and civil authority disintegrated. By late October violence and massive looting erupted and there were efforts to form peasant republics. However, the Croatian political leadership
7035-450: The military forces until Emperor Karl I took the supreme command himself in late 1916 and dismissed Conrad von Hötzendorf in 1917. Meanwhile, economic conditions on the homefront deteriorated rapidly. The Empire depended on agriculture, and agriculture depended on the heavy labor of millions of men who were now in the Army. Food production fell, the transportation system became overcrowded, and industrial production could not successfully handle
7140-460: The military to continue to wage war. This was shown in a transition of power after which the Hungarian prime minister, Count István Tisza, and foreign minister, Count István Burián , had decisive influence over the internal and external affairs of the monarchy. By late 1916, food supply from Hungary became intermittent and the government sought an armistice with the Entente powers. However, this failed as Britain and France no longer had any regard for
7245-434: The multiethnic Empire, as they refused to keep on fighting for a cause that now appeared senseless. The Emperor had lost much of his power to rule, as his realm disintegrated. On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz asked for an armistice based on President Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points and two days later Emperor Karl I issued a proclamation ("Imperial Manifesto of 16 October 1918") altering
7350-422: The musings of one of his characters, an academic working with prisoners.He quotes Musil "If mankind could dream collectivity it would dream Moosbrugger'. Writing about Musil in The New Criterion , Roger Kimball wrote, "Whatever else one can say about it, The Man Without Qualities stands as one of the great modern works of satire." Robert McCrum ranked it one of the top 10 books of the 20th century: "This
7455-574: The names k. u. k. Monarchie (English: k. u. k. monarchy ) (in detail German: Kaiserliche und königliche Monarchie Österreich-Ungarn ; Hungarian: Császári és Királyi Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia ) and Danubian Monarchy (German: Donaumonarchie ; Hungarian: Dunai Monarchia ) or Dual Monarchy (German: Doppel-Monarchie ; Hungarian: Dual-Monarchia ) and The Double Eagle (German: Der Doppel-Adler ; Hungarian: Kétsas ), but none of these became widespread either in Hungary or elsewhere. The realm's full name used in internal administration
7560-624: The newspaper « Il Giorno ». A. We were reading Musil and discovering parallels and similar processes. And without ever being able to determine, either then or now, how much in the latter was attributable to Flaiano and how much, instead, was due to his own intuition. Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary , also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy ,
7665-583: The novel are based on history and Musil's life. The plot and the characters (with the exception of a short appearance of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I ) are invented (although some of them had inspirations in eminent Austrians and Germans). Elsa (Berta) von Czuber, whom Musil met while he studied in Brno between 1889 and 1901, inspired him with the image of Ulrich's sister Agathe. Donath and Alice Charlemont, Musil's friends, were models of Walter and Clarisse and Viennese socialite Eugenie Schwarzwald gave birth to
7770-469: The outbreak of World War I. Part III, entitled Into the Millennium (The Criminals) , is about Ulrich's sister Agathe (who enters the novel at the end of Part II). They experience a mystically incestuous stirring upon meeting after their father's death. They see themselves as soulmates, or, as the book says, "Siamese twins". As it was published, the novel ends in a large section of drafts, notes, false-starts and forays written by Musil as he tried to work out
7875-433: The overwhelming need for munitions. Germany provided a great deal of help, but it was not enough. Furthermore, the political instability of the multiple ethnic groups of Empire now ripped apart any hope for national consensus in support of the war. Increasingly there was a demand for breaking up the Empire and setting up autonomous national states based on historic language-based cultures. The new Emperor sought peace terms from
7980-632: The paradoxes of the Kakanian way of life: "By its constitution it was liberal, but the system of government was clerical. The system of government was clerical, but the general attitude to life was liberal. Before the law all citizens were equal, but not everyone, of course, was a citizen. There was a parliament, but it used freedom in such an excessive way that it was kept almost always closed." (Musil: The Man without Qualities , Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction, Chapter 8 – Kakanien). The story contains approximately twenty characters of bizarre Viennese life, from
8085-602: The population moved to the unoccupied Romanian territory, in Moldavia , together with the Romanian government, royal court and public authorities, which relocated to Iași . In 1917, after several defensive victories (managing to stop the German-Austro-Hungarian advance), with Russia's withdrawal from the war following the October Revolution, Romania was forced to drop out of the war. Although
8190-463: The proper ending for his book. In the German edition, there is even a CD-ROM available that holds thousands of pages of alternative versions and drafts. Musil worked on the novel for more than twenty years. He started in 1921 and spent the rest of his life writing it. When he died in 1942, the novel was not completed. The 1,074-page Volume 1 (Part I: A Sort of Introduction , and Part II: The Like of It Now Happens ) and 605-page Volume 2 (Part III: Into
8295-557: The reign of Franz Joseph I with vague ideas of humanity, progress, tradition, and happiness, the followers of Realpolitik see a chance to exploit the situation: Stumm von Bordwehr wishes to get the Austrian army income raised and Arnheim plans to buy oil fields in an eastern province of Austria. Musil's great irony and satire is that the planned celebration of international peace and imperial unity slides into national chauvinism, war, and imperial collapse. The novel thus provides an analysis of political and cultural processes that contributed to
8400-476: The role of protector of Slavs and Orthodox Christians. Austria envisioned a multi-ethnic, religiously diverse empire under Vienna's control. Count Gyula Andrássy, a Hungarian who was Foreign Minister (1871–1879), made the centerpiece of his policy one of opposition to Russian expansion in the Balkans and blocking Serbian ambitions to dominate a new South Slav federation. He wanted Germany to ally with Austria, not Russia. Russian Pan-Slavic organizations sent aid to
8505-500: The side of the Entente powers , hoping to gain territory from its former ally. The Austro-Hungarian Empire played a relatively passive diplomatic role in the war, as it was increasingly dominated and controlled by Germany. The only goal was to punish Serbia and try to stop the ethnic breakup of the Empire, and it completely failed. Starting in late 1916 the new Emperor Karl removed the pro-German officials and opened peace overtures to
8610-429: The sixties – I'm now thinking mainly to Certi romanzi – critical musings on the issue of novel (what is novel , what antiromanzo , how one might and how one should write a work of prose...) are always intertwined, in some moments more plainly, in others more explicitly, with musings about cinema. In particular, your closeness to Fellini appears, to me, particularly significant – for example, in your review of 8 1/2 for
8715-611: The so-called "Collateral Campaign" or "Parallel Campaign", preparations for a celebration in honor of 70 years of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph 's reign. That same year, 1918, the German Emperor Wilhelm II would have been ruler of his country for 30 years. This coincidence prompts Count Leinsdorf to suggest the creation of a committee to explore a suitable way to demonstrate Austria's political, cultural, and philosophical supremacy via
8820-593: The standpoint of the German Emperor on 5 July and received a supportive response. His Majesty authorized me to report to [Franz Joseph] that in this case, too, we could count on Germany's full support. As mentioned, he first had to consult with the Chancellor, but he did not have the slightest doubt that Herr von Bethmann Hollweg would fully agree with him, particularly with regard to action on our part against Serbia. In his [Wilhelm's] opinion, though, there
8925-671: The status of Austria-Hungary as a Dual Monarchy. But 'kaka' is also a child's word for faeces in German, just as in English, in the Spanish caca , in the Italian cacca and in the Russian кака . Also, 'kakos' is a Greek term for bad borrowed by a number of words in German and English, and Musil uses the expression to symbolise the lack of political, administrative and sentimental coherence in Austria-Hungary . Musil elaborates on
9030-441: The urgent counsel of his top advisers. Over the course of July and August 1914, these events caused the start of World War I, as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of counter-mobilizations. In support of his German ally, on Thursday, 6 August 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Russia. Italy initially remained neutral, despite its alliance with Austria–Hungary. In 1915, it switched to
9135-637: The viability of Musil's original conception. Some estimate the intended length of the work to be twice as long as the text that survives. In 1996 Knopf published a new English translation of Man Without Qualities by Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike . The translation received a special citation for the PEN Translation Prize . Writing about the Wilkins-Pike translation in The New York Times , Michael Hofmann wrote "Of all
9240-489: The violence as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate." Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were organized not only in Sarajevo but also in many other larger Austro-Hungarian cities in modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. Four hundred sixty Serbs were sentenced to death and
9345-654: The war started out equally poorly. The government accepted the Polish proposal of establishing the Supreme National Committee as the Polish central authority within the Empire, responsible for the formation of the Polish Legions , an auxiliary military formation within the Austro-Hungarian army. The Austro-Hungarian Army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the great fortress city of Przemyśl
9450-615: The war, she taught at the Emanuel School , which evacuated to Petersfield in 1939. From the mid-1930s to the late 1950s, Wilkins wrote poetry, publishing about 40 poems in various literary journals, including the poetic sequence "Oranges and Lemons". Several of her poems were included in Kenneth Rexroth 's anthology The New British Poets , published by New Directions in 1949. In 1941 in Petersfield, she married
9555-771: Was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen . From 1867 onwards, the abbreviations heading the names of official institutions in Austria–Hungary reflected their responsibility: Following a decision of Franz Joseph I in 1868, the realm bore the official name Austro-Hungarian Monarchy/Realm ( German : Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie/Reich ; Hungarian : Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia/Birodalom ) in its international relations. It
9660-615: Was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consisted of two sovereign states with a single monarch who was titled both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary . Austria-Hungary constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of the Habsburg monarchy : it was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in
9765-642: Was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic were treated as its successors de jure , whereas the independence of the First Czechoslovak Republic , the Second Polish Republic , and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , respectively, and most of the territorial demands of
9870-539: Was besieged and fell in March 1915. The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive started as a minor German offensive to relieve the pressure of the Russian numerical superiority on the Austro-Hungarians, but the cooperation of the Central Powers resulted in huge Russian losses and the total collapse of the Russian lines and their 100 km (62 mi) long retreat into Russia. The Russian Third Army perished. In summer 1915,
9975-571: Was crushed by the Austrian military with Russian military assistance, and the level of autonomy that the Hungarian state had enjoyed was replaced with absolutist rule from Vienna. This further increased Hungarian resentment of the Habsburg dominion. In the 1860s, the Empire faced two severe defeats: its loss in the Second Italian War of Independence broke its dominion over a large part of Northern Italy ( Lombardy, Veneto , Modena, Reggio , Tuscany , Parma and Piacenza ) while defeat in
10080-450: Was focused on creating a new state (Yugoslavia) and worked with the advancing Serbian army to impose control and end the uprisings. At the start of the war, the army was divided into two: the smaller part attacked Serbia while the larger part fought against the formidable Imperial Russian Army . The invasion of Serbia in 1914 was a disaster: by the end of the year, the Austro-Hungarian Army had taken no territory, but had lost 227,000 out of
10185-438: Was given full control of all the armed forces of the Central Powers and Austria-Hungary effectively became a satellite of Germany. The Austrians viewed the German army favorably; on the other hand, by 1916 the general belief in Germany was that Germany, in its alliance with Austria–Hungary, was "shackled to a corpse". The operational capability of the Austro-Hungarian army was seriously affected by supply shortages, low morale and
10290-451: Was halted and slowly repelled; but the Austrian armies took heavy losses (about 1 million men) and never recovered. Nevertheless, the huge losses in men and material inflicted on the Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the revolutions of 1917 , and it caused an economic crash in the Russian Empire. The Act of 5 November 1916 was proclaimed then to the Poles jointly by
10395-526: Was no need to wait patiently before taking action... The leaders of Austria–Hungary therefore decided to confront Serbia militarily before it could incite a revolt; using the assassination as an excuse, they presented a list of ten demands called the July Ultimatum , expecting Serbia would never accept. When Serbia accepted nine of the ten demands but only partially accepted the remaining one, Austria–Hungary declared war. Franz Joseph I finally followed
10500-466: Was often contracted to the "Dual Monarchy" in English or simply referred to as Austria . Timeline Following Hungary's defeat against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Mohács of 1526, the Habsburg Empire became more involved in the Kingdom of Hungary, and subsequently assumed the Hungarian throne. However, as the Ottomans expanded further into Hungary, the Habsburgs came to control only
10605-466: Was one of the reasons why he felt bitter and unrecognized during the last two decades of his life. The combination of poverty and a multitude of ideas is one of the most striking characteristics of Musil's biography. There are strong autobiographical features to be found in the text as the main characters' ideas and attitudes are believed to be those of Musil. Most of the aspects of the Viennese life in
10710-471: Was the Nobel laureate Maurice Wilkins . In 1923, when she was almost nine, she moved to Dublin with her family and shortly after they moved again to London, followed again by a move to Birmingham, where her father started work as a school doctor. She studied languages and literature at Somerville College, Oxford and later worked as a journalist and translator in London and Paris before World War II . During
10815-585: Was the first significant action of the Czechoslovak Legions , who fought for the independence of Czechoslovakia against the Austro-Hungarian army. In May 1915, Italy attacked Austria–Hungary. Italy was the only military opponent of Austria–Hungary which had a similar degree of industrialization and economic level; moreover, her army was numerous (≈1,000,000 men were immediately fielded), but suffered from poor leadership, training and organization. Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna marched his army towards
10920-466: Was to arrive at a synthesis between strict scientific fact and the mystical, which he refers to as "the hovering life". Musil originally opposed publishing only sections of his still unfinished work and later regretted submitting to his publisher's insistence, because what was already printed could not be subjected to further amendments. Some chapters were redacted by Musil from the printers after he had already sent them for publication. Critics speculate on
11025-612: Was to unite with Serbia and Montenegro in a large South Slav state . On the same day, the Czechs and Slovaks formally proclaimed the establishment of Czechoslovakia as an independent state. Eithne Wilkins Eithne Wilkins (born Ethne Una Lilian Wilkins ; 12 September 1914 – 13 March 1975) was a Germanic Studies scholar, translator and poet from New Zealand . She was born in Wellington to Edgar Wilkins, an Irish doctor, and his wife Eveline (Whittaker); her younger brother
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