The Death of Virgil - Hermann Broch

Hermann Broch was born in Vienna, Austria, into a Jewish family, and for a time worked in his family's factory, although he kept his literary interests hidden. He was destined to work in his father's textile factory, so he studied at a technical school for textile manufacturing and at a spinning and weaving college. In 1909, he married Franziska von Rothermann, the daughter of a noble manufacturer. The following year, their son Hermann Friedrich Maria was born. Later, Broch began to show interest in another woman, and his marriage ended in divorce in 1923.

He was acquainted with Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Elias Canetti, Franz Blei, his friend, writer, and former nude model Eva von Allesch, and many others. In 1927, he sold the textile factory and decided to study mathematics, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Vienna. He embarked on a literary career only around the age of 40. At 45, he published his first novel, "The Sleepwalkers." With the annexation of Austria by the Nazis in 1938, Broch was arrested, but an organized movement by friends - including James Joyce - managed to free him, and he was allowed to emigrate, first to the UK, then to the United States, where he finally finished his novel "The Death of Virgil."