This book was originally published in German in 1911, and this attractive small-formatted volume has been newly translated by Peter Wortsman. These two novellas, "The Culmination of Love" and "The Temptation of Silent Veronica" give the reader a glimpse of the high modernist style that powered his mammoth work, The Man Without Qualities. These stories are conveyed in Musil's famed experimental style, where there is no strict linear storyline, but it travels through and reveals his characters' psyches, and is an image-rich rendering that centers on the romantic and sexual feelings of its female characters.
I wasn't fully taken by the style, but the writing is incredibly interesting and provocative ... it intrigues me, even if I didn't always enjoy or, frankly, understand it. It's a good bet that I will reread this book in my future. ( )