A Perfect Hoax (Alma Classics 101 Pages) - Softcover

Svevo, Italo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847497756 ISBN 13: 9781847497758

Publisher: Alma Classics, 2019

Synopsis

Travelling salesman Enrico Gaia decides to play a trick on the conceited ageing littérateur Mario Samigli: he dupes him into thinking that a representative of a prestigious Viennese publishing house wants to commission a German translation of a long-forgotten novel Samigli had written and published at his own expense forty years ago. This leads the old man to reach new heights of self-delusion, spurred on by Gaia's succession of ruses.

In this tragicomic study of deception and disappointment, Italo Svevo – who himself was an undiscovered writer until his old age – parodies elements of his own life and offers an insightful psychological portrait of a person who has lost touch with reality.

About this title

About the Author:

Born in Trieste to a Jewish German father and an Italian mother, Italo Svevo (1861–1928) worked for his father-in-law's paint business for most of his life and was unknown as a writer until the 1923 publication of Zeno's Conscience, which is now considered a classic of Italian fiction.

Review:

“...a wonderful comedy where the resourcefulness of the vain and creative mind is aided by a variety of unlikely circumstances in its desperate effort to reconstruct self-esteem and serenity” ―Tim Parks

About this edition

• Publisher: Alma Classics
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1847497756
• ISBN 13: 9781847497758
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 114