The Man Without Qualities

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The Man Without Qualities

Cover of the first edition
Author	Robert Musil
Original title	Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften
Country	Austria
Language	German
Genre	Modernist novel, philosophical novel, historical novel
Publisher	Rowohlt Verlag
Publication date	1930–1943
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	1,130 (the core text); 1,774 (complete English translation)
LC Class	PT2625.U8 M3

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.

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.