The Confessions Of Zeno [Series: The Modern Readers Series]

New York: New Directions, 1947. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Good. 412 Pp. Black Cloth,Spine Gilt. Second American Edition, With A New Essay By Poggioli. Near Fine, Slight Usage But Endpapers Foxed; No Marks. Dust Jacket Priced $3.50, Worn, Chip Around Top Of Spine, A Few Short Tears And Minute Losses. Per Wikipedia, Aron Hector Schmitz (1861 - 1928), Better Known By The Pseudonym Italo Svevo, Was An Italian And Austro-Hungarian Writer, Businessman, Novelist, Playwright, And Short Story Writer. During His Time At The Union Bank Of Vienna In The Later 1880'S-90'S, Svevo Contributed To The Italian-Language Socialist Publication L'indipendente (It), And Began Writing Plays (Which He Rarely Finished) Before Beginning Work On Una Vita In 1887. Svevo Adhered To A Humanistic And Democratic Socialism, Which Predisposed Him To Pacifism, And To Advocate For The Creation Of A European Economic Union After The War. A Close Friend Of Irish Novelist And Poet James Joyce, Svevo Was Considered A Pioneer Of The Psychological Novel In Italy And Is Best Known For His Modernist Novel La Coscienza Di Zeno (1923), Which Became A Widely Appreciated Classic Of Italian Literature. The Work, Showing The Author's Interest In The Theories Of Sigmund Freud, Is Written In The Form Of The Memoirs Of Zeno Cosini, Who Writes Them At The Insistence Of His Psychoanalyst. Svevo's Novel Received Almost No Attention From Italian Readers And Critics At The Time. The Work Might Have Disappeared Altogether, If It Were Not For The Efforts Of James Joyce. Joyce Had Met Svevo In 1907, When Joyce Tutored Him In English, While Working For Berlitz In Trieste. Joyce Read Svevo's Earlier Novels, Una Vita And Senilità. Joyce Championed Zeno's Conscience, Helping To Have It Translated Into French And Then Published In Paris, Where Critics Praised It Extravagantly. That Led Italian Critics, Including Eugenio Montale, To Discover It. Zeno Cosini, The Book's Hero And Unreliable Narrator, Mirrored Svevo Himself, Being A Businessman Fascinated By Freudian Theory. Svevo Was Also A Model For Leopold Bloom, The Protagonist Of Joyce's Seminal Novel Ulysses. Zeno's Conscience Never Looks Outside The Narrow Confines Of Trieste, Much Like Joyce's Work, Which Rarely Left Dublin In The Last Years Of Ireland's Time As Part Of The United Kingdom. Svevo Employed Often Sardonic Wit In His Observations Of Trieste And, In Particular, Of His Hero, An Indifferent Man, Who Cheats On His Wife, Lies To His Psychoanalyst, And Is Trying To Explain Himself To His Psychoanalyst, By Revisiting His Memories. There Is A Final Connection Between Svevo And The Character Cosini. Cosini Sought Psychoanalysis, He Said, In Order To Discover Why He Was Addicted To Nicotine. As Svevo Reveals In His Memoirs, Each Time He Had Given Up Smoking, With The Iron Resolve That This Would Be The "Ultima Sigaretta!!", He Experienced The Exhilarating Feeling That He Was Now Beginning Life Over Without The Burden Of His Old Habits And Mistakes. That Feeling Was, However, So Strong That He Found Smoking Irresistible, If Only So That He Could Stop Smoking Again, In Order To Experience That Thrill Once More.