Young Toerless Author:Robert Musil Thus John Simon states the theme which animates this remarkable novel of sexual and intellectual awakening. Set within the confines of a military boarding school, the book has as its center the shifting, tension-ridden relationship of Toerless and three fellow students. With near-hallucinatory vividness, the intense conflicts and fevered emotion... more »s of adolescence are evoked; yet always present is a note of cool, analytic detachment, tracing the patter of future destiny as it emerges from this atmosphere of mingled youthful idealism and brutal sadism, rigorous discipline and perverse sensuality. A work of superb art and prophetic psychological insight, Young Toerless offers a memorable introduction to a writer who has come to be recognized as one of the singular talents of the [past] century.« less