Contains: A Sort of Introduction The Like of it Now Happens (I)"It would be useless to attempt a synopsis of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, not only because of its length and complexity, but also because the real action lies not on the surface, in what the characters do (though that is often dramatic enough), but within, in their states of mind, the fluctuations of their emotions, their theories, and the counterpoint between the thoughts and the behaviour of them all, in themselves and in relation to each other, especially to the Man without Qualities himself, who is the nucleus, and in relation to the demands of the indefinable pattern of this world we live in."(From the Foreword by the translators)
