The Guiltless [Paperback]

Hermann Broch (Author), Michael Hathaway (Author), Ralph Manheim (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Broch (1886-1951) had careers as a mathematician, engineer, and director of a Viennese textile firm before publishing his first work, the trilogy Sleepwalkers, in 1930-32. In 1935 he spent 5 months in a Nazi prison; in 1940 he emigrated to the U.S.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Marlboro Press; Translated edition (December 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810160781
• ISBN-13: 978-0810160781
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A study on indifference, February 26, 2001

By 

Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Guiltless (Paperback)

This novel was born out of several previous short novellas, which Broch weaved together, adding new chapters and orderered to tell one multilayered story, a rich, complex and deep one. It is the story of A., a Dutch financier who lives in Germany. The three parts of the book correspond to the years 1913, 1923 and 1933. Besides portraying the pre-Hitlerian Germany, it is a metaphysical novel, in the strictest sense of the concept. The fundamental subject is indifference as an attitude towards life. "A" is indifferent to practically everything, including the suffering of his lover and, of course, political and social problems. The book is called "The guiltless" because no one assumes themselves as responsible for the dangerous path Germany was following in those years. However, "A" will pay a price for his indifference.

This novel is, then, a reflection on the social environment that led to Nazism. Broch is a dense but good writer, and I think this novel is recommended to any serious lovers of literature, but also for those interested in observing a recreation and a meditation on Germany in those three crucial decades for the world.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broch unplugged, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Guiltless (Paperback)

Arguably Broch's best novel. Not as overwrought as 'Death of Virgil', nor as tangential as 'The Sleepwalkers'. Here he finally cuts deep into the German mind tha lead to the horrors of WWII with lessons for all mankind. Brilliant.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laden with epiphany but..., August 22, 2008

By 

J. Lundquist (Takoma Park, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Guiltless (Paperback)

If someone asked me to describe this book, I would probably hesitate, blink once or twice, stutter, shuffle my feet uncomfortably, and then tell said someone to return in 20 or 30 years after I've given this one another go. I give it five stars, but I'm not really sure why. It might be the epiphany given to us on just about every page. Seriously, folks, Broch was beyond current imaginings with some of his prosody. I could sum up the skeletal plot here, but I won't. I can only advise one to read this at least once and perhaps one day on a far flung colony of Earth we can come together and discuss this work as it should be discussed.