Diaries : Robert Musil 1899-1942

1090 Pages·1998·3.94 MB·English

by  Robert Musil

DIARIES
� 1899-1941 �
BY ROBERT MUSIL
Original German Version
of THE DIARIES Edited by
Adolf Frisé
Selected, Translated, Annotated,
and with a Preface by
Philip Payne
Edited and with an Introduction by
Mark Mirsky
BASIC
BOOKS
A Member of The Perseus Books Group
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Copyright 1976, 1983 by Rowohlt Verlag GmbH Translation copyright C
≼
Philip Payne, 1998
Photographs copyright Robert Musil Museum of Literature, Klagenfurt
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Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group.
Excerpts in English translation from the Diaries appeared in the magazine,
Fiction, Volume 12, Numbers 2&3, Volume 13, Numbers 1&2, Volume 14,
Number 1.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For
information address Basic Books, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-
5299.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Musil, Robert, 1880-1942.
[Tagebücher. English. Selections]
Diaries, 1899-1942 / by Robert Musil; selected, translated, annotated, and with a
preface by Philip Payne; edited and with an introduction by Mark Mirsky;
original German edition edited by Adolf Frisé.
p. cm.
"The present work is a selection from Robert Musil, Tagebücher, edited by Adolf
Frisé (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1976)" -- Pref.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-465-01650-2 (cloth); ISBN 0-465-01651-0 (pbk.) 1. Musil, Robert,
1880-1942 -- Diaries. 2. Authors, Austrian -- 20th century -- Biography. I.
Payne, Philip, 1942. II. Mirsky, Mark, 1939-.
III. Title.
PT2625.U8T3413 1999
838'.9103-dc21
[b]
98-36990
CIP
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Translator's Note VII
Preface by Philip Payne IX
Introduction by Mark Jay Mirsky XXXV
A Note on This Edition LVII
1 Notebook 4: 1899? to 1904 or later 1
2 Notebook 3: 1899? to 1905-1906 37
3 Notebook 24: 1904 to 1905 71
4 Notebook 11: 2 April 1905 to 1908
83
or later, circa 1918-1919
5 Notebook 15: 11 February 1907
107
to 24 April 1907
6 Notebook 5: 8 August 1910 to
115
October 1911 or later
7 Notebook 6: 29 November 1911
141
to 7 March 1912 and later
8 Notebook 7: 30 March 1913
147
to 11 January 1914
9 Notebook 17: May 1914 to
171
August 1914 or later
10 Notebook I: Circa 1915 to 1920 175
11 Little Notebook Without a Number:
193
At the latest 1916 to 1918-1919
12 Notebook 8: 1920 207
13 Notebook 9: 1919 to 1920 231
14 Notebook 10: 1918 to 1921 (1929, 1939) 241
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15 Notebook 19: 1919 to 1921 261
16 Notebook 21: 1920 to 1926 277
17 Notebook 25: 1921 to 1923? 309
18 Notebook 26: 1921 to 1923? 323
19 Notebook 28: 1928 to June 1930 337
20 Notebook 30: Circa March 1929
345
to November 1941 or later
21 Notebook 31: 7 February 1930
407
to Spring 1936
22 Notebook 34: 17 February 1930
419
to Early Summer 1938
23 Notebook 33: 1937 to about end of 1941 435
24 Notebook 32: Circa Spring 1939
479
to about end of 1941
25 Notebook 35: 6 November 1939
495
to 6 November 1941
Notes 505
List of Omissions 543
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
The present work is a selection from Robert Musil, Tagebücher, edited by Adolf
Frisé (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1976). I am deeply indebted to Adolf
Frisé for his help in the selection and allowing me to make use of the apparatus
of his edition for this English translation -- this use is so extensive that I have not
acknowledged each separate reference to his notes. (Occasionally, in various
notes I refer to Frisé's edition as follows: Heft 4, 23 [Notebook 4, p. 23].)
Editorial conventions used in this translation are broadly the same as those used
in the German edition:
Each new diary entry begins flush at the left-hand margin.
Paragraphs within entries are indented.
Editorial annotations appear in square brackets thus: A list of all the major
points of abridgment in the text appears in the List of Omissions at the back
of this edition.
Musil's own brackets (to amend entries during composition or at a later
date) are represented by open and close parentheses thus: (...).
Musil's additions and amendments to his entries -- he frequently returned to
his diaries for ideas and inspiration and sometimes corrected or otherwise
commented on his original text -- are indicated by curly brackets thus: { . . .
}.
Very occasionally a word or phrase which Musil deleted has been retained
in the translation and is enclosed in arrow brackets thus: < . . . > .
A number of Musil's eccentricities in punctuation have been preserved from
the Frisé edition, three periods where the American reader would expect
four, two periods where usage dictates three, and a varying scheme of
italicization.
Since I refer frequently to Musil major work, Der Mann obne Eigenschaften,
edited by Adolf Frisé (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1978), this edition
appears abbreviated throughout as MoE. A new translation of this
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novel, The Man without Qualities, edited by Burton Pike, translated by Sophie
Wilkins and Burton Pike ( New York: Knopf, 1995), is referred to throughout as
MwQ. I would like to thank Burton Pike for his help and encouragement with
the preparation of this translation of Musil Diaries.
I also would like to acknowledge the help and advice I received from colleagues
in England and Germany, particularly the following: at the Arbeitsstelle filr
Robert-Musil-Forschung at the University of the Saar, Professor Marie-Louise
Roth and Professor Pierre Behar, Dr. Annette Daigger, Korinna Teschner, Patrik
Feltes, and Silvia Bonacchi; at Lancaster University, Graham Bartram, David
Craig, and Keith Hanley. My mother has undertaken most of the word-
processing of this translation from the first manuscripts to the final draft and
kept a watchful classicist's eye on my use of English!
P. P.
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PREFACE
PHILIP PAYNE
ROBERT MUSIL'S LIFE, LITERARY WORKS,
AND DIARIES
1880, Robert Musil Born in Klagenfurt, Austria
Robert Musil was born into the comfort, and stifling pressures, of a wellto-do
Austrian family during the latter years of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I.
The author's father, Alfred Musil ( 1846-1924), was appointed in 1891 to the
Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University in Brünn ( Brno), a
center of administration, manufacturing industry, and culture. Alfred was a
reserved man, firmly rational in outlook, without religious belief; he found it
difficult to express his feelings. He waited patiently for promotion to a chair in
Vienna but the summons did not come. His service to the Empire and his loyalty
to the Emperor were rewarded with a hereditary peerage, just before the collapse
of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War. His wife, Hermine ( 1853-
1924), was made of different stuff -- she was the driving force in the family and
frequently quarreled with her servants and her wilful son. Alfred could not cope
with her and tolerated in "his" household another male, Heinrich Reiter (b.
1856), whose function seems to have been to pacify Hermine. The permanent
presence of this "uncle" aroused curiosity and suspicion in young Robert, at the
age when the rivalry of another for his mother had begun to impinge as
forcefully on the intellect as it had on his emotions.
Aspects of Musil's mental constitution had begun to emerge: a tendency toward
critical detachment from and scorn for men; attraction toward women with
strong personalities and strong sexual drives; respect for science and rationality
qualified by scepticism toward their practitioners; hypersensitivity and an
unpredictable temper; a predisposition to speculate about the motives and the
private behavior of other people. In early manhood he became increasingly
aware of the wider historical framework to his
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