ITALO SVEVO, pseudonym of Ettore Schmitz (1861-1928) , was an Italian novelist and short-story writer, a pioneer of the psychological novel in Italy who became one of the most important figures in modern Italian literary history.
Svevo’s first novel, A LIFE (1892), was revolutionary in its analytic, introspective treatment of the frustration and agonies of an ineffectual bank clerk with a poetic soul. A powerful but rambling work, the book was ignored upon its publication. So was its successor, AS A MAN GROWS OLDER (1898, also translated as EMILIO'S CARNIVAL), a study in jealousy and self-torment that is suffused with a tragic sense of the unbreachable distance between one consciousness and another.
After his first two novels were dismissed by critics and ignored by the public, Svevo abandoned literature and went to work in his father-in-law's paint business. Aiming to improve his English, he became close friends with James Joyce, twenty years his junior, who encouraged him to take up writing again. He subsequently wrote what became his most famous novel, CONFESSIONS OF ZENO (1923, also translated as ZENO'S CONSCIENCE), a charming and splendidly idiosyncratic work that conducts readers deep into one hilariously hyperactive and endlessly self-deluding mind. Published at Svevo’s own expense, the book was also a failure until a few years later Joyce arranged to have it published in France, where Svevo was hailed as "the Italian Proust." His rank as a major writer was already established when he died in a car accident in 1928.
Among posthumously published works were two short-story collections, including THE NICE OLD MAN AND THE PRETTY GIRL (1930), and FURTHER CONFESSIONS OF ZENO (1969), an unfinished sequel to his earlier work.
(Fun fact: Svevo was a model for Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's novel "Ulysses".)
The following books are in ePUB or PDF format as indicated. All the PDFs are the fine work of @Mohamed5438.
== NOVELS ==
* As a Man Grows Older (NYRB, 2001). Beryl de Zoete, trans.; J. Lasdun, intro. -- PDF
* As a Man Grows Older (Pickle Partners, 2016). Beryl de Zoete, trans. -- ePUB
* Confessions of Zeno (Vintage, 1958). Beryl de Zoete, trans. -- PDF
* Emilio's Carnival (Senilità) (Yale, 2001). Beth Archer Brombert, trans. -- PDF
* Further Confessions of Zeno (California, 1969). Johnson and Furbank, trans. -- PDF
* Life, A (Pushkin, 2012). Archibald Colquhoun, trans. -- ePUB
* Zeno's Conscience (Vintage, 2003). William Weaver, trans. -- ePUB
== SHORT STORIES ==
* Argos and His Master (Fario, 2012). Juan LePuen, trans. -- ePUB
* Generous Wine (Fario, 2011). John Penuel, trans. -- ePUB
* Mother, The (Fario, 2011). John Penuel, trans. -- ePUB
* Murder on Via Belpoggio (Fario, 2011). John Penuel, trans. -- ePUB
* Nice Old Man and the Pretty Girl (Melville House, 2010). Collison-Morley, trans. -- ePUB
== PLAYS ==
* Inferiority (Fario, 2011). John Penuel, trans. -- ePUB
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