THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES [Volume I]

First American edition. 8vo, publisher’s original red cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine, in the original dustjacket. xxv, [1], 365, [3] pp. The book in near fine condition, the dustjacket with some mellowing and edgewear.

Edizione: first published in 1930 musil’s “der mann ohne eienschaften” is considered one of the greatest, and longest, german novels of the first half of the century. it is the work for which musil is best known and to which he dedicated a large portion of his life. the work remains unfinished, as he died while still working on it. the story was set at the time of the decline of vienna and emperor franz josef’s power. rather than focus on history however, musil concentrates on the conceptual development of his characters. it has been described as expressionistic, satirical, and as the last work of the classical tradition. it was not translated into english until this printing, beginning in 1953.<br> the translators wilkins and kaiser, dedicated much time to this work as well, as it was published over a span of seven years. the three volumes had the complete translation of the finished portion of musil’s work. a fourth volume containing unfinished sketches and unrevised variants was to be published. <br> this particular volume has a foreword by wilkins and kaiser and it is here that the main theme becomes explicit and musil’s talent and imagination are more fully developed. in this way, the previous two volumes are a prologue to the problem set in this novel--that of love and belief. or, the idea that “love, in whatever form it is experienced, is an approximation only: as it were, an experimental approach to living in a condition that he calls “other’.” further, “becoming one with the ‘other’ is an experience more complex, more complete, and therefore more desirable than any union that can be physically enacted. a human ‘other’.is an image of an ‘other’ that is nameless.” (wilkins) consequently, musil is not only exploring human relations but relations to abstract truths and perhaps, god. his work reflects a preoccupation with these questions that was central to european philosophers such as heidegger and levinas, among others, and anticipated the philosophical and literary concerns with god and the relation to others and otherness of this millennium.