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Book Reviews - Review 276

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Robert Musil


Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless (The Confusions of Young Törless)

Category: Fiction | Published: 1906 | Review Added: 14-04-2013

Rating: 4 - A top read

(Qualifier: ages since I read this.)

I can't remember much about this novel, and I recall I found it difficult to read at the time. Musil is an erudite writer whose long sentences and large vocabulary make reading him in the original German quite a challenge.

If I recall correctly, the story is about a boy in an Austrian public school who experiences an "awakening" of his darker side in his relationship with a schoolmate, Basini, who is caught stealing. Along with two other boys, Törless abuses Basini pychologically, physically and sexually. The torment becomes increasingly savage.

I recall that the novel seemed more than a mere intellectualised celebration of sadism: Törless develops a conscience in the course of it, and his shocking behaviour seems (rightly or wrongly) slightly mitigated by a masochistic streak in Basini, who on one level enjoys his "punishment".

This is certainly a grimly fascinating story that is psychologically convincing. As mentioned above, I really didn't enjoy reading it much, though - not so much because of the subject as because I found the prose extremely dense. I never really got into the flow of it, owing to all the words I was skipping, or having to look up. But I give the benefit of the doubt to those who maintain it is a classic of Austrian literature.

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