Point of View

The point of view the author uses is 3rd person and 3rd person with omniscience. The narrator does not come across as having a personality. The reader seems to be assumed to be part of the living part of the early 20th century. The work appears to be devised for the purpose of being timely, just as this year's best selling novels have been devised the same way. Likewise, just as an American novelist is likely to have the expectation that the reader will be American and will know the culture, Robert Musil naturally assumes that the reader is one of these Germanic peoples.

During the Foreword this is explained a little further. Robert Musil was an Austrian who lived for some time in Germany. However, he was routed back to Austria when the political situation became somewhat extreme. The publisher also moved. During the Foreword...