Robert Musil is best remembered for penning The Man Without Qualities, a sprawling, unfinished high modernist opus that tracks the hubristic downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The action centers around Ulrich, a not-quite-young ex-soldier who is wealthy, intelligent, detached, and—as the novel’s title suggests—altogether nondescript. The year is 1913, and Ulrich—whose “family name must be […]