New edition.

A saga of a family and an account of addiction and failure as its helpless hero, notionally undergoing psychiatric help, manages spectacularly to fail to give up smoking, run his business or make sense of his private life.

This 20th century masterpiece uses the traditional form of autobiography to explore some very untraditional themes. Under the guidance of a psychoanalyst an old man looks back over his life, exploring his motives and trying to make sense of things, but when he decides to abandon the treatment, his reminiscences are published by Doctor S as an act of revenge against the patient who has frustrated .

A tale of the frustrated existence of a bank clerk with a poetic soul. The artistic aspirations of the protagonist and the emptiness of his daily life become tragic in the great divide between what he wants and what he actually has and gets. Alfonso the bank clerk wants to be a poet and seems to be falling in love with Annetta.

This is a new translation into English of this little gem by one of the most famous authors of 20th century Italian literature, in whom there is a current interest due to his affiliation with James Joyce.

In this novel, Svevo tells the story of the amorous entanglement of Emilio, a failed writer already old at 35, and Angiolina, a seductively beautiful but promiscuous young woman. A study in jealousy and self torment, the novel is suffused with a tragic sense of existence.

A masterwork of Italian literature.