The Man Without Qualities: Volume II

«The Man Without Qualities» — the main novel of Musil. The writer worked on it for more than twenty years but never managed to finish it. Despite this, «The Man Without Qualities» has become one of the greatest works of German-language literature, which can be referred to without exaggeration as the greatest exploration of the human soul. 1913. The government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire establishes a committee that is to develop a special plan of activities for the upcoming celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph’s reign, which will take place in five years. The committee consists of industrialists, bankers, aristocrats, military personnel, and politicians. By chance, a young officer, engineer, and mathematician Ulrich finds himself among them — a «man without qualities», a cynic devoid of purpose in life and indifferent to moral norms…