Read By: Merve Emre

May 16, 2021

Merve Emre on her selection:

At the beginning of March, I helped to organize a group reading of Robert Musil's unfinished masterpiece The Man Without Qualities. The excerpt I have chosen to read, from Chapter 32, "The Forgotten, Highly Relevant Story of the Major's Wife," wonderfully compresses much of what I admire about Musil's writing. The story of the major's wife is a story about a man who is in love with the idea of being in love, and as such, is narrated with irony and affectation, but also with pure and gentle beauty.

The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, trans. Sophie Wilkins

Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0

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Categories: Literary Read By

Tags: Merve Emre

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