A Life

Italo Svevo · 1861–1928 · Italy

Originally Una Vita (Italian)

Why it matters

Svevo's unnoticed debut follows Alfonso Nitti, a bank clerk with literary ambitions, into an affair with his employer's daughter that curdles into ruin. The first sketch of the passive, self-deceiving antihero Svevo would perfect in Zeno.

At a glance

A more conventional nineteenth-century narrative than Svevo's later, ironic mature style.