Correction: A Novel Read Online Free Page A

Roithamer was present to my mind’s eye, because he had in fact been present here, I saw him distinctly and I heard what he said when I saw him, even though he was not present in reality, so conscious was I of his presence as I gazed at his things, breathed the air he had breathed those last years in the garret, thought the thoughts he had always thought here, sensed the Hoeller atmosphere which had become second nature to him in the years when he’d been disengaging himself from Altensam and had, gradually at first and then altogether, given himself up to his project, the Cone, for Roithamer had often told me that the Hoeller atmosphere and the circumstances of the Hoeller atmosphere, the line of thought directly bound up with the Hoeller atmosphere and the circumstances bound up with the Hoeller atmosphere had become his one necessity, the only compelling necessity of his life, no matter where he happened to be in those final years, whether in England, where he had to teach at the university in Cambridge, or in the Kobernausser forest, where he had decided to build the Cone, wherever he had stayed in those final years, whether in England or in Austria, whether in the English place, which called for great decisiveness and presence of mind, or in the Austrian place, with great attachment and love, though also with equally great contempt and dislike, with a mixture of distrust and disappointment felt so keenly as to border on hatred for his homeland, a borderline he was often sharply aware of crossing, in fact, because he realized that while on the one hand he loved Austria as the land of his origin, he also hated it because it had rudely affronted him all his life long, it had always repulsed him when he needed it, it had never let a man like Roithamer come close, basically men, people, characters like Roithamer have no business in a country like his homeland and mine, where they have no chance of developing and are continually aware of their inability to develop, such a country needs people who are not angered to the point of rebellion against the insolence of such a country, against the irresponsibility of such a country and such a state, such a totally decrepit, public menace of a state, as Roithamer said again and again, a state in which only chaotic conditions, if not the most chaotic conditions, prevailed; this state has countless men like Roithamer on its conscience, it has a most sordid and shabby history on its conscience, it is no better than a permanent condition of perversity and prostitution in the form of a state, as Roithamer said again and again, quite impassively, with his innate firmness of judgment based on solid experience, indeed Roithamer had never accepted any criterion other than that of experience, as he said again and again, when his limit of tolerance toward this country and this state had been reached, and he said that he could not give a full account of this state’s sordidness and shabbiness and dangerousness in just a few quick words, nor could he take the time for a full analysis in a scholarly work on the subject, intent as he was on his professional duties and on his building of the Cone, nor did he have the head for exhausting himself in political argument, he had never been able to pour himself out in political—the common kind of political argument—he had to leave this sort of thing to other kinds of heads, foreheads, occiputs, more suited to it than his own , he merely felt driven now and then to bring his judgment to bear on the country of his origin, the country where he belonged, Austria, this most misunderstood country in the world, this country more problematical than any other in all world history, so from time to time he had to risk expressing himself on the subject of Austria and the Austrians, this state that was economically more decrepit than any other, which had nothing left, apart from its congenital imbecility, but its hypocrisy, hypocrisy in every conceivable area of