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Diaries : 1899-1941
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 830
EAN: 9780465016518
ISBN: 0465016510
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 624
Publication Date: January 01, 2000
Publisher: Basic Books
Studio: Basic Books
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Editorial Review:
Born into an affluent Austrian family in 1880, Robert Musil died penniless 62 years later, a solitary, bitter man who felt his genius had gone unrecognized. Certainly Musil's name is not nearly as well known as those of his contemporaries Marcel Proust, James Joyce, or Thomas Mann; still, the old man's shade might take some comfort in the critical and popular response his unfinished masterpiece, The Man Without Qualities, has garnered in recent years. Its latest, 1995 translation revived interest in an author many consider one of the greatest--if least read--writers of the 20th century. Readers who want to know more about the man behind The Man are in luck: Robert Musil's Diaries are now available in English.
Musil was an inveterate diarist; while the German edition of his journals is comprehensive, its translator and English-language editor, Phillip Payne, has chosen to be more selective. Gone are entries that summarize or excerpt the work of other authors; those that are "unintelligible to all but Musil experts"; early drafts of works that are not of particular interest; or entries that add little of significance to our understanding of Musil's life or work. What's left, however, is more than adequate, and provides a fascinating window into the life, times, and creative process of a literary master. There are Musil's working notes to himself ("Set up at least 100 figures, the main human types in existence today: the Expressionist, the Courths-Mahler, the profiteer, the psycho-pedagogue, the disciple of Steiner, etc. Then have these figures crossing each other's paths"); comments about his world ("My generation was anti-moral or amoral because our fathers talked of morality and acted in a philistine and immoral fashion ... children today are moral, but want people to take morality seriously"); and meditations on the most private aspects of his personal life (discussing his wife, Martha, he writes, "She isn't anything that I have gained or achieved; she is something that I have become and that has become "I"). Robert Musil's Diaries are a remarkable portrait of the artist throughout his life and a standing testimony to his genius. --Alix Wilber
For the first time in English-fresh insights into the mind of one of our century's great novelists.
Robert Musil is ranked alongside Marcel Proust and James Joyce for his monumental, unfinished novel, The Man Without Qualities. His Diaries, a distillation of forty-three years of material, are valuable in a number of ways: as a first-hand historical document of life in twentieth-century central Europe, as a kind of unwitting autobiography of a great novelist, and as a writer's notebook that details the moods of artistic adventure.
Readers will gain keen insights into Musil's passage from scientist, to soldier, to novelist, in honest passages that reveal the man in all his humor, ambition, frustration, and transcendence.
"[The] American publication [of Diaries] is an important cultural event for which everyone involved with the project deserves our gratitude." -Los Angeles Times
"It is as if a private library has been now opened to public use and benefit." -Washington Times
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The penetrating mind of R. Musil
As other commentators have said, Musil's diaries reveal this fascinating writer's process of thought, and are not filled with the usual "then he said something and we laughed and ordered another round" entries. In the regrettable absence of an autobiography or good biography, the _Diaries_ are a good substitute.
Musil's eye is at once poetic and objective. I could only be astounded by the maturity of the young artist. His description of a horse laughing, of sunset on windows, of ... Read More
Rating:  - A helpful look into Musil's mind
The fascinating man becomes clearer through the pages of his notebooks, which are uneven in their quality but ultimately rewarding. A must for Musil fans seeking to understand the mind of the genius.
Rating: - Excellent, yet inadequate
Robert Musil is one of the most complex and little known authors of the 20th Century. I am sure that anyone who has read "The Man without Qualities" will want to know more about Musil after getting to know his writing. Sadly, there is no adequate Biography available, even in German, so one of the best ways to get to know the Author is through his fascinating Diary. These were actually more Notebooks than Diaries, and they contain an encylopedic array of information on Musil himself, ... Read More
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