Introductory remarks

As indicated above, I do not believe that Musil structured the novel as a whole according to a master-plan – there were no ‘architect's drawings’ for The Man without Qualities which Musil carried through single-mindedly. It does, however, seem likely that Musil intended the completed novel to be roughly symmetrical. If it had been completed it might have looked as follows:

1. Part I – ‘Eine Art Einleitung’ (‘A Kind of Introduction’) (completed, with nineteen chapters)

2. Part II – ‘Seinesgleichen geschieht’ (‘The Same Kind of Things Happen Again’) (completed, with one hundred and four chapters)

3. Part III – ‘Ins Tausendjährige Reich’ (‘Die Verbrecher’) (‘Into the Millenium (The Criminals)’) (thirty-eight chapters completed, perhaps some sixty or so more envisaged)

4. Part IV – ‘Eine Art Ende’ (‘A Kind of Ending’) (possible title – no chapters written and only a few pages of notes extant, including Ulrich's so-called ‘final statement’. Musil may have intended Part IV to be roughly as long as Part I.)

Under these headings we can see a shape emerging: Part I provides an introduction to Ulrich and ‘Kakanien’ (this being Musil's ironical term for Austria-Hungary – the words ‘kaiserlich’ and ‘königlich’ referring to the Constitution of the Empire are here compressed into their initial letters, ‘k’ and ‘k’, to form a play on words, linking Austria-Hungary to the child's word for excrement), the world he inhabits.