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"Musil belongs in the company of Joyce, Proust, and Kafka." (The New Republic)

Like his contemporary and rival Sigmund Freud, Robert Musil boldly explored the dark, irrational undercurrents of humanity. The Confusions of Young Törless , published in 1906 while he was a student, uncovers the bullying, snobbery, and vicious homoerotic violence at an elite boys academy. Unsparingly honest in its depiction of the author's tangled feelings about his mother, other women, and male bonding, it also vividly illustrates the crisis of a whole society, where the breakdown of traditional values and the cult of pitiless masculine strength were soon to lead to the cataclysm of the First World War and the rise of fascism. A century later, Musil's first novel still retains its shocking, prophetic power.

罗伯特•穆齐尔（1880—1942），奥地利作家，二十世纪最重要的德语文学大师之一，生长在一个颇有名望的家庭，十七岁进维也纳军事技术学院，一九○三年进柏林大学攻读哲学、心理学、数学和物理；一九○六年出版长篇小说《学生特尔莱斯的困惑》获得好评；一九○八年获哲学博士学位后放弃在大学任教机会选择了作家的职业，后又出版短篇小说集《协会》、《三个女人》以及剧本《醉心的人们》等。一九三○年出版潜心十年创作的巨著《没有个性的人》第一卷，一九三三年又出版了第二卷。希特勒上台后，他开始了流亡生活，一九三六年因中风险些丧命，由于疾病缠身，终未完成这部巨著。一九四二年四月十五日，穆齐尔在瑞士日内瓦的寓所溘然长逝。穆齐尔生前未得到应有的重视，二十世纪五十年代后随着《没有个性的人》的重新出版，他才引起西方文学界的广泛关注。二十世纪八十年代西方掀起穆齐尔热，人们把他与卡夫卡、普鲁斯特、乔伊斯并列为二十世纪最重要的作家。