Italo Svevo

Aron Hector Schmitz was born in Trieste in 1861 and comes from a family of Jewish origin. He studies economy in Germany to help his father with the family business; he talks in Venice-Trieste dialect but writes in Italian. These different elements make him choose a pseudonym that stands for the mixed presence of both Italian and German cultures.

The most important writer of his time and one of the most important of contemporary Italian literature, writes about the problems of Trieste’s middle-class families, their uncertainties chiefly connected with search for identity and choice of language.

His first novel Una vita which is completely ignored by readers and critics, talks about the discomfort of social difference in Trieste at the end of the 19th century. His second novel Senilità, not a big success either, compares the state of mind of the inept person to that of the old person, because the inept contemplates life in a melancholy and nostalgic manner as does an old person regarding youth, thus feeling an outsider.

The real turning point for Svevo arrives when he meets James Joyce. Joyce appreciates the work of Svevo and encourages him to continue writing thus helping the writer from Trieste to give birth to his most complex creation, The Confessions of Zeno. This novel makes Svevo famous, both in Italy and in Europe, thanks to the support of his friend Joyce and the interest of Eugenio Montale.

Svevo dies in an accident in 1928 and is buried at Motta di Livenza.