Zeno's Conscience

1923 novel by Italo Svevo Zeno's Conscience Title page of the second edition of La coscienza di Zeno (1930)AuthorItalo SvevoOriginal titleLa coscienza di ZenoTranslatorBeryl de ZoeteGenremodernist novelPublished1923 (L. Cappelli Editore) (Italian)Published in English1930 (US: Alfred A. Knopf | UK: Putnam) Zeno's Conscience (Italian: La coscienza di Zeno [la koʃˈʃɛntsa di dˈdzɛːno]) is a novel by Italian writer Italo Svevo. The main character is Zeno Cosini, and the book is the fictional character's memoirs that he keeps because his psychoanalyst recommended to do so in order to overcome his illness. He writes about his father, his business, his wife, and his tobacco habit. The original English translation was published under the title Confessions of Zeno. After two novels, Una vita and Senilità, were ignored by critics and public, and after a long period of literary silence, entirely devoted to work, in 1923 Svevo self-published this novel, quite different in style. It was appreciated by a close friend of Svevo's, James Joyce, who presented the book to two French critics, Valery Larbaud and Benjamin Crémieux. The success of the novel expanded to Italy, thanks to the poet E