Confusions of Young Torless by Robert Musil

Author:Robert Musil
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: classics, Psychology
ISBN: 9781101174104
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: 1906-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Basini was smiling. A friendly, sweet smile. Rigidly fixed, like the smile in a painting, it rose out of the light’s frame.

Torless sat pressed against his beam, and felt the muscles in his eyes twitching.

Now Beineberg listed Basini’s disgraceful deeds; evenly, his voice hoarse.

Then came the question: ‘So, aren’t you at all ashamed?’ Then a glance from Basini to Reiting, apparently saying, ‘Now it’s time for you to help me.’ And at that moment Reiting struck Basini in the face with his fist, so that he tottered backwards, stumbled against a beam and fell. Beineberg and Reiting jumped after him.

The lamp had tipped over, and its light flowed, uncomprehending and lethargic, across the floor to Törless’s feet ...

From the sounds that reached him, Törless could make out that they were taking Basini’s clothes from his body and whipping him with something thin and flexible. They had clearly had all this prepared. He heard Basini’s whimpering and muted complaints, incessantly begging for mercy; finally all he heard was a groan, like suppressed weeping, and occasional muffled curses and Beineberg’s hot, passionate breathing.

He had not moved from his spot. At first he had been seized by a bestial desire to leap in with the others and deliver the beating, but he was restrained by the feeling that he was too late, that he would be superfluous. Paralysis lay heavy over his limbs.

He looked at the floor in front of him with apparent indifference. He didn’t pitch his hearing to follow the sounds, and he didn’t feel his heart beating more quickly than usual. With his eyes he followed the light that poured into a lake at his feet. Flecks of dust lit up, and an ugly little spider’s web. The beam of light went on seeping into the gaps between the beams and suffocated in a dusty, dirty gloom.

Törless would have spent an hour sitting like that without noticing. He wasn’t thinking about anything, and yet internally he was extremely busy. He was observing himself. But only as though he was really looking into the void, as though he was only seeing himself sideways-on, in a vague glow. Now, out of this vagueness - from the side - slowly, but ever more visibly, a desire was clearly emerging into consciousness.

Something made Törless smile. Then the desire grew even stronger. It drew him down from his seat - on to his knees; on to the floor. It drove him to press his body against the boards; he felt his eyes growing large like a fish’s eyes, he felt his heart knocking against the wood through his naked body.

Now there really was a massive excitement within Törless, and he had to cling to a beam to brace himself against the vertigo that was drawing him down.

Beads of sweat stood out on his brow, and he asked himself anxiously what all this could possibly mean.

Startled out of his apathy, he started listening out for the others through the darkness.

It had grown quiet over there; only Basini moaning quietly to himself as he felt for his clothes.

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