Italo Svevo

Born in Trieste (at the time in the Austrian Empire, then in Austria-Hungary since 1867) as Aron Ettore Schmitz to a Jewish German father and an Italian mother, Svevo was one of seven children, and grew up enjoying a passion for literature from a young age, reading works of Goethe, Schiller, Shakespeare, and the classics of French and Russian literature. Svevo was a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the First World War. He spoke Italian as a second language, as he usually spoke the Triestine dialect. Due to his Germanophone ancestry by his father, he and his brothers were sent to a boarding school near Würzburg, in the German Empire, where he learnt and became fluent in German. After returning to Trieste in 1880, Svevo continued his studies for a further two years at Istituto Revoltella, before being forced to take financial responsibility when his father filed for bankruptcy, after his once successful glassware business failed. This 20-year period as a bank clerk at the Unionbank of Vienna served as inspiration for his first novel, Una Vita (1892). During his time at the bank, Svevo contributed to 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. Following the death of his parents, Svevo married his cousin Livia Veneziani in a civil ceremony in 1896. Soon after, Livia convinced him to convert to Catholicism and take part in a religious wedding (probably after a troublesome pregnancy). Personally, however, Svevo was an atheist. He became a partner in his wealthy father-in-law's paint business - that specialized in manufacturing industrial paint, that was used on naval warships. He became successful in growing the business, and after trips to France and Germany set up a branch of the company in England. Svevo lived for part of his life in Charlton, south-east London, while working for a family firm. He documented this period in his letters to his wife, which highlighted the cultural differences he encountered in Edwardian England. His old home at 67 Charlton Church Lane now carries a blue plaque.

Svevo first started writing short stories in 1880. He took on the pseudonym "Italo Svevo" (literally "Italus the Swabian") for the publication of his first novel, Una Vita, in 1892. The novel was not a success. His second novel, Senilità (1898), was also received poorly. In 1919 he began work on La Coscienza di Zeno (known in English as Zeno's Conscience or Confessions of Zeno).

After being involved in a serious car crash, he was brought into hospital in Motta di Livenza, where his health rapidly failed. As death approached, he asked one of his visitors for a cigarette. It was refused. Svevo replied: "That would have been my last". He died that afternoon.

Novels Una Vita (1892). A Life, trans. Archibald Colquhoun (1963). Senilità (1898). As a Man Grows Older, trans. Beryl de Zoete (1932); later as Emilio's Carnival, trans. Beth Archer Brombert (2001). La Coscienza di Zeno (1923). Confessions of Zeno, trans. Beryl de Zoete (1930); later as Zeno's Conscience, trans. William Weaver (2003). Novellas La novella del buon vecchio e della bella fanciulla (1926). The Nice Old Man and the Pretty Girl. Una burla riuscita (1926). A Perfect Hoax, trans. J. G. Nichols (2003). Short story collections La novella del buon vecchio e della bella fanciulla, e altre prose inedite e postume (1929, posthumous). The Nice Old Man and the Pretty Girl and Other Stories, trans. L. Collison-Morley (1930). Corto viaggio sentimentale e altri racconti inediti (1949, posthumous). Short Sentimental Journey and Other Stories, trans. Beryl de Zoete, L. Collison-Morley and Ben Johnson (1967). Other Saggi e pagine sparse (1954, posthumous). Essays and Scattered Pages. Commedie (1960, posthumous). Dramatic works. Lettere (1966, posthumous). Correspondence with Eugenio Montale. Further Confessions of Zeno (1969, posthumous). Trans. Ben Johnson and P. N. Furbank. Fragments of a sequel to La coscienza di Zeno. Includes: "The Old Old Man", "An Old Man's Confessions", "Umbertino", "A Contract", "This Indolence of Mine", and Regeneration: A Comedy in Three Acts. A Very Old Man: Stories (2022, posthumous). Trans. Frederika Randall. Includes: "The Contract", "The Confessions of a Very Old Man", "Umbertino", "My Leisure", and "Foreword".