Foreword & Chapters 1 - 4 Summary

There is a Foreword to the book. This acclimates the reader. Robert Musil was an Austrian. He spent part of his life in Austria and another good portion of it living in Germany. He was born in 1880. Decades later, as a grown man he joined the Austrian Army and served at the front during the First World War. He was "too old" to serve in World War 2. He moved to Germany from Austria and he liked it fine until the Nazi's began to grow uncomfortably powerful. At that time, he assessed the situation and chose to relocate - simply to Austria. This Austrian writer was actually safe and okay there in Austria for quite some time; there were no threats to his life. What did happen, however, was that the potential market for his novel was reduced because of...