The Sleepwalkers

And I've read thousands...A few breadcrumbs first. This is really a trilogy. The first, 'The Romantic', ironically enough is written as a parody of Realism which prevailed in Lit at the time the novel happens. Just as the realists did, it tries to show by psychological insight the actions and motivations of an ineffectual neurotic. But between the obsessiveness of Broch's description & the sheer lack of any insight of the 'hero', it becomes a satire of sorts. Likewise, the next 'The Anarchist' is a parody of Expressionism, which prevailed in Lit when the action of this novel happens. While it has the hyperintense drama, hothouse environment and weird pseudomysticism you would expect, the 'hero' is a petty wanna be revolutionary who accomplishes nothing of any substance. The last, 'The Realist' uses the shifting points of focus, multiple styles of exposition and attempts at some grander scheme of Modernism, the dominant form of Lit at the time all 3 were written in the period between the World Wars.Broch meant this 'novel' to be an analysis and description of the Disintegration of Values (his term) that led Germany into WWI (& later WWII). He brings all this together in the last of the set by his personal tweaking & expanding of Hegel's thesis->antithesis->synthesis framework. In his version, all functional worldviews have a combination of Rationalism and Irrationality. When a system leans too heavily to one or the other it falls apart. The dominant approach of a (European) Universal Catholic church broke down as it turned into an empty set of often flouted Rational absolute rules. This set the stage for the Enlightenment which also turned into a strict emphasis on Rationality. That system's failure to account for the Irrational side of life set the stage for the Nihilistic Irrationality of proto- and later Nazi Germany. One could also use it to describe the rise & fall of Communism as an extension of the Enlightenment reliance on Reason. Since people are by nature Irrational, Communism had to fall.A simpler description of the book could be: a secular novelistic version of the stations of the cross ending in the Crucifixion. Unfortunately, Germany had to go to Hell from there. It took Germany another 15 years before it could rise from Hell.I read this (and many other German & Austrian writers of the period) to try to make some sense of what is happening now in the World & most particularly the US. I have found it here.We are nearing the end of the effectiveness of the Rational Secular Humanistic, Neoliberal Capitalism that has become the dominant worldview. Now dark forces of Irrationality are rising in an Invasion from Below (Broch again) and leading us into a new time of troubles. Look at how the far right love to talk about 'the gut' and 'common sense' as opposed to science among many other logical inconsistencies. Broch talks of how as systems collapse, it favors individuals who are ruthless and have an insane indifference to the suffering of others.Sound like any orange world leader we know?Hopefully we only need 15 weeks give or take without entering WWIII to pull our heads out of our Irrational asses and can come up with a new worldview where capitalism is combined with heart and fairness rather than the Darwinian feeding frenzy that we have now which has produced President Irrational.

Actually three novels in one, each portraying a seminal period in German history that ends with the rise of the Nazi's. When he's on his game, Broch deserves to be in the company of 20th Century European greats like Musil and Joyce. He writes at a profoundly deep level in the first novel, "The Romantic," and the immersion in character provides a dreamlike quality to the action. "The Anarchist" is coarser, and its protagonist's self-deceptions are fascinating, if appalling. "The Realist" I had difficulty with only because the author intrudes at various points with essays and analysis, which while often brilliant, break the narrative's spell. I realize this is something of a convention in European novels, and I plead a deficient sensibility, since the writing is usually first-rate. One notion of Broch's which haunts me, because it seems so appropriate to our own times: "when the secular rules, romanticism is the unavoidable result," or something to that effect. Thanks to the visual media, video games, etc., we've certainly no shortage of romanticism.

The Sleepwalkers is a loosely connected trilogy of novels completed by Hermann Broch in 1931. Individual titles are The Romantic (1888), The Anarchist (1903), and The Realist (1918). Broch studies the psychological and social forces acting among men and women - artists, performers, intellectuals, labor organizers, beaurocrats, soldiers, merchants and shopowners - whose lives entangle in turn-of-the-century Germany.In The Romantic (1888), a young military officer crosses paths with a rising businessman in the vibrant complex of urban Berlin, as they become common rivals for status and female attention. While Major von Pasenow fusses over matters of custom and propriety in courtship, his regimental ways appear in contrast to Bertrand, the civilian with a more decadent and philosophical attitude to society and romance.In The Anarchist (1903) Bertrand has become a powerful "capitalist" in Mannheim, facing opposition from a conscientious accountant seeking to avenge the imprisonment of a friend and labor activist. As Esch gains the advantage, Bertrand clings to his philosophical musing as his sexual appetites move to the foreground in a confrontation with moral and tragic significance. The Anarchist concludes, about half-way through the book, with the accountant Esch marrying an inn-keeper and taking her to Luxembourg.At this point, after digesting a heavy diet of dreary social incidents, the reader may be feeling impressed but a little fatigued and weary of humorless conflict. Broch's characters may seem not much more than profiles in anxiety, confronted with the fragility of their survival, but they are detailed by a writer with a magnificent ability to ride the interface between internal consciousness and external events on a high philosophical level.With The Realist (1918), we find Broch expanding and dividing his scope, a stylistic change that offers some relief from the congested format that came before, and allows Broch more perspective and digression. Following Hugenau, an Alsatian war deserter, we arrive at a German wine valley near the battle-front, now inhabited by Esch and his wife, publishers of a local newspaper, and von Pasenow who is the aging Town Commandant. Arriving in the midst of warfare, escaping his past and inventing his future, Hugenau brings fraud and ruin to Esch and his associates in the community.While we see the tragedy of war unfold through the eyes of local citizens, Broch inserts a series of essays on Hugenau, entitled "The Disintegration of Values", composed by an author who refers to himself as Bertrand, now acting as an adjunct narrator of events. Bertrand might appear to represent the views of the author, but I have my doubts about that. While Hugenau is clearly a monster, he is also a survivor, and given Bertrand's role in The Anarchist, his philosophical loftiness has, for me, some of the condescension of an elitist, though perhaps a reformed one.Modern readers may feel this chronicle resonating with familiar trends in society today. Broch deftly probes his human interiors, and his observations are resolved and rendered with imagination. But there is little optimism to be found as Broch dwells on the limitations, blunders and self-destructive ways of his characters, as they plant their individual seeds in a rotting garden of ignorance, decadence, lost opportunity, and failure.The translation leaves plenty to wish for, as the Muirs rely heavily on British colloquial forms of speech, and occasionally the rendering of certain passages seems awkward and belabored.

I found this book to be very enjoyable! I bought it because I wanted to better understand Germany's ideological decent into fascist thinking. I got some very good philosophy and story out of this book.

broch excels in every department - storytelling, characterisation, sense of period and, of course, intellectual rigour. I can not understand why this book is not more widely known. whwn is kindle going to make available Broch's 'Death of Virgil'?

This a very long trilogy set in Germany in the periods 1890s, pre-WW1 1903 and WW1 end. It was written around the early 1930s. Each story has a different style; the first two looked like standard linear prose and the third (twice as long as the other two) was mixed episodic, parallel stories. The writing is highly regarded and akin with Mann's Magic Mountain or similar.The first book is about upper class Joachim von Pasenow who fancies a vibrant and characterful Czech prostitute Ruzena. But his family have earmarked his social equal Elisabeth von Baddensen for marriage. Joachim is in the army but maintains close links to a scheming rich friend, ex-military Eduard. I think the thrust of the story were the usual themes of true desires and changing values (in this case orchestrated by Eduard).The second book is about a middleclass accountant August Esch who aspires for a new life in America. He associates with Martin Geyring and (seemingly in the mode of a Monty Python sketch, but rather than `lion taming') starts a new life as a theatre production manager with women's wrestling. He fancies Frau Hentjen and hopes to marry her (and use her money for investment).The third book sees a deserter called Huguenau arrive in town and he decides the local newpaper, run by Esch, is ripe for a take-over. Esch is part of a local religious group with the local Major. There are parallel stories about a Salvation Army cadet. Joachim makes an appearance; and there is a war wounded soldier Jaretki and his hospital care. The drama descends on the town as the war comes to an end.I thought I'd really enjoy this writer and these stories but, much like Magic Mountain, each story started to drag on. It was only really the last 10% of each story when it felt like it was actually going any where. Much like the characters "sleepwalking" into their lives - I've woken up after reading these stories, as if from a sleepwalk, and remember little of the tales.There was a very erudite prose section called "The Disintegration of Values", which if I had been bothered to really analyse I'm sure would have got under the skin of the world's values in the presence of war - but some how I had already given up on the text by then.Some quotes:"We all are in conventional feeling. But feelings are inert, and that's why they're so cruel. The world is ruled by the inertia of feeling""Even the devil was still subject to the will of God""The man who from afar off yearns for his wife or merely for the home of his childhood has begun his sleepwalking""In the rushing train only the future is real, for every moment is given to a different place"Only three stars because, though it is doubtless well written, it really did become a struggle to finish.

A masterpiece. Obviously can't be read by anyone, this is not a best seller. Broch should be more praised, instead it is less known than Joyce or Thomas Mann.