Origin and Identity

Italo Svevo is acknowledged as a writer of international stature alongside his contemporaries Kafka, Proust and Joyce. These essays focus on his three novels, "Una Vita", "Senilita" and "La coscienza di Zeno". Drawing on new biographical and critical research, key issues are explored such as: Svevo's Jewishness; his debt to psychoanalysis; sexuality and love; structure and irony; and time and narration. The opening chapter is devoted to Trieste, which features so prominently in his oeuvre. This work should provide both the general reader and the student with a valuable re-evaluation of a unique writer of genius.