The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil · first published 1979
67% recommend27% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
Sprawling, witty novel of pre-WWI Vienna with brilliant writing and sharp social insight, especially on the prewar climate in Germany and Austria; an outstanding unfinished work for serious readers of literature.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. Set in pre WWI Vienna. It’s a three volume unfinished novel full of brilliant writing, much of which should appeal to the crowd here.
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] is by far the most outstanding novel i have read, as it stretches the limits of what language can express past anything i tought possible. The protagonist is a mathematician whose scientific mind…
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗…Causation”. Well, these are the major ones that stood up this year. Also In terms of fiction 2018 was quite classy: The Iliad by Homer, Faust by Goethe, The Sleepwalkers - Herman Broch, re-reading The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (one of my favourite work of literature of all time). I’ve found out after creating soc. media accounts last year,(After being off for 3 years) my reading habits have degenerated and…
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗…are plenty to enjoy some serious fiction from authors such as: - Homer (watching Troy is way too far from the book) - Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain is top pick among his works - Robert Musil - The Man Without Qualities I think is one of the finest pieces of literature - Albert Camus - pick any of his works, but the shortest is considered to be the finest - The Stranger (~ 80-100 pages) - Herman Melville - Moby Dick…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗Poor no more - Robert Chester Ruark A Coffin Full of Dreams - Frisco Hitt Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…you are more into "novels" see this thread: "What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17381352 My suggestions where Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] is by far the most outstanding novel i have read, as it stretches the limits of what language can express past anything i tought possible. The protagonist is a mathematician whose scientific mind…
on “Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python” ↗…I feel its fiction collection is second to none. There are a handful of novels I use to judge how broad (and good) a bookstore's fiction collection is. Hermann Broch's Sleepwalkers, Robert Musil's A Man Without Qualities, and Witold Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke. I would say 90 percent of the bookstores out there would not have any of these three books in stock, and certainly not Barnes & Noble. The last time I checked, City…
on “Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Enduring San Francisco” ↗…good at anything", I've started calling this recently "the George Costanza-way of looking at life", when I was younger I was calling it after a very great novel I had read as a teenager, Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities
on “‘Success Addicts’ Choose Being Special over Being Happy” ↗Odd. I wasn't crazy about The Corrections, but it struck me as straightforward reading. Moby Dick, The Man Without Qualities, and Don Quixote are long, but to my notion very readable in a way that Remembrance of Things Past or The Golden Bowl are not.
on “Mr. Difficult: William Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-Read Books (2002)” ↗The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil The Gospel to According Jesus Christ - Jose Saramagu etc.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗- The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann - The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil - The Gospel According to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - The War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa - The War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy etc. I…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗I agree that Dostoyevsky's psychological insights were profound. Maybe it doesn't exhibit the same psychological depths, but morally and philosophically I would also recommend Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities. It is still psychologically profound (although perhaps not at Dostoyevsky's level) and it provides a very detailed picture of society in turn-of-the-century (20th century) Austria. It's one of the greatest…
on “How to Read a Novel” ↗…Weidel, among others, who is in a same-sex partnership with a dark-skinned woman who was born in Sri Lanka. For anti-Semitism in Germany before the Holocaust, I can recommend Robert Musil's novel “The Man Without Qualities.” For me, it was the most insightful look into the social background and conditions that led to the mindset of the time, which later erupted into genocide. Incidentally, I realize that we are not yet…
on “Kiel Institute Analysis: US Americans pay 96% of tariff burden” ↗''The Man Without Qualities'' - Robert Musil (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)
on “Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?” ↗I can vouch for "The Man Without Qualities", the book is really extraordinary. I read it when I was 18 and I still remember not quite knowing why I liked it so much.
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗