The Modern Novel

Biography

Italo Svevo was born Ettore Schmitz in Trieste in 1861. His father was a successful businessman. Svevo was one of sixteen children, though only eight of the children (including Svevo) survived into adulthood. When he was twelve his father sent him to study in Germany where he became fluent in German. While there he also became interested in socialism. He returned to Trieste when he was seventeen where he enrolled in business school. He had to leave the following year, when his father had a financial setback, and he went to work in a bank. He started writing while working at the bank and published many articles in the Indipendente newspaper. He published his first novel in 1892 (the year his father died) at his own expense but it was completely ignored by the critics as was his second novel, Senilità (As a Man Grows Older).

Svevo eventually left the bank to work for his wife’s family’s firm. His work involved travel, including to England, and he took courses in English at the Berlitz School in Trieste, where James Joyce became his teacher, though they tended to talk more about literature than study English. They read each other’s works and gave each other mutual encouragement. It was Joyce who helped get recognition for La coscienza di Zeno (Confessions of Zeno; Zeno’s Conscience). Svevo was planning to write a sequel to La coscienza di Zeno (Confessions of Zeno; Zeno’s Conscience) when he was involved in a car accident in 1928. Though his injuries were minor, he had a heart attack which killed him. He will remembered for being one of the first Italian experimental writers and for creating a small but significant body of work.

Other links

Italo Svevo
Plaque on house where lived in England
Italo Svevo (in Italian)
Italo Svevo (in Italian)
a href=”http://biografieonline.it/biografia.htm?BioID=1315&biografia=Italo+Svevo” target=” -blank” rel=”noopener”>Italo Svevo (in Italian)
Italo Svevo (in Italian)
Italo Svevo (in Italian)
Italo Svevo (in Italian)
Italo Svevo (1861-1928) (in Italian)
Italo Svevo e l’anima ebraica (in Italian)
Texts of his works (in Italian)