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**auctionlover** · 01-19-2009, 08:29 PM

OK, OK, OK, I surrender! You use very persuasive sales techniques and I'm putting it on my 'Must Read' list. I admit it: I've put off reading him for far too long. The Oxford Companion to English Literature gives the novel just two sentences, and they make it tempting as well:

'Zeno is a complex and delicately balanced novel in which time and point of view are relative. Arguing with his psychoanalyst, Zeno struggles with chance, time, marriage, and tobacco, disclosing the source of his malady as the Oedipus complex.'

Let's see how Titania's techniques work, though:

"You see things less clearly when you open your eyes too wide."

Yes, I'm a sucker for paradox. Good start.

Vain, supercilious, and disloyal, he never seems to give the reader much room for admiration.

Yes, unpleasant characters can make for interesting reading.

"The doctor has urged me not to insist stubbornly on trying to see all that far back," Zeno writes. "Recent things can also be valuable, and especially fantasies, and last night's dreams."

This is beginning to take on an oddness that pleases me.

"On that sofa I wept my most searing tears. Weeping obscures our guilt and allows us to accuse fate, without contradiction. I wept because I was losing my father for whom I had always lived."

I love the sentence 'Weeping obscures our guilt and allows us to accuse fate, without contradiction.' Good use of quotation.

In the second part of the book, "The Story of My Marriage," Zeno proves to be both pompous and naive. Although the truth is often right before him, he fails to perceive it. He is so blinded by the illusions he has about himself, that the conclusions he comes to about people and circumstances are almost ludicrous. "It's surely easier to change oneself than to reshape others," he declares ironically.

Self-deception, over and over. Sounds like a classic case out of Sartre's filing cabinet. Zeno is obviously a 'salaud', or swine.

"Days go by, suitable for framing; they are rich in sounds that daze you, and besides their lines and colors, they are also filled with real light, the kind that burns and therefore isn't burning."

The two of them "shun" musuems in order to enjoy the paintings and pictures that make up "real life."

Is there any more of this art and life business? OK, I know: 'Read the book!'

Hailed as a "seminal work of modernism," Zeno's Conscience was published in Italian in 1923 and in English in 1930.

Titania, where does this bit of quotation come from? Svevo certainly doesn't instantly spring to mind as a member of the modernist canon, though, but that's probably because, for some odd reason, most of those works are in English: Stein, Pound, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, for instance, and of course Joyce.

James Joyce says, "I am reading (Zeno's Conscience) with great pleasure. Why be discouraged? You must know it is by far your best work."

The all-important Joyce link, which reminds me that I first came across Svevo's name in Richard Ellmann's superb James Joyce.

Once again, Titania, a brilliant, generously sized review. Good sale.

Gotta scamper off.

01-19-2009, 08:29 PM	#3
auctionlover Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 377 Senior Member	OK, OK, OK, I surrender! You use very persuasive sales techniques and I'm putting it on my 'Must Read' list. I admit it: I've put off reading him for far too long. The Oxford Companion to English Literature gives the novel just two sentences, and they make it tempting as well: 'Zeno is a complex and delicately balanced novel in which time and point of view are relative. Arguing with his psychoanalyst, Zeno struggles with chance, time, marriage, and tobacco, disclosing the source of his malady as the Oedipus complex.' Let's see how Titania's techniques work, though: "You see things less clearly when you open your eyes too wide." Yes, I'm a sucker for paradox. Good start. Vain, supercilious, and disloyal, he never seems to give the reader much room for admiration. Yes, unpleasant characters can make for interesting reading. "The doctor has urged me not to insist stubbornly on trying to see all that far back," Zeno writes. "Recent things can also be valuable, and especially fantasies, and last night's dreams." This is beginning to take on an oddness that pleases me. "On that sofa I wept my most searing tears. Weeping obscures our guilt and allows us to accuse fate, without contradiction. I wept because I was losing my father for whom I had always lived." I love the sentence 'Weeping obscures our guilt and allows us to accuse fate, without contradiction.' Good use of quotation. In the second part of the book, "The Story of My Marriage," Zeno proves to be both pompous and naive. Although the truth is often right before him, he fails to perceive it. He is so blinded by the illusions he has about himself, that the conclusions he comes to about people and circumstances are almost ludicrous. "It's surely easier to change oneself than to reshape others," he declares ironically. Self-deception, over and over. Sounds like a classic case out of Sartre's filing cabinet. Zeno is obviously a 'salaud', or swine. "Days go by, suitable for framing; they are rich in sounds that daze you, and besides their lines and colors, they are also filled with real light, the kind that burns and therefore isn't burning." The two of them "shun" musuems in order to enjoy the paintings and pictures that make up "real life." Is there any more of this art and life business? OK, I know: 'Read the book!' Hailed as a "seminal work of modernism," Zeno's Conscience was published in Italian in 1923 and in English in 1930. Titania, where does this bit of quotation come from? Svevo certainly doesn't instantly spring to mind as a member of the modernist canon, though, but that's probably because, for some odd reason, most of those works are in English: Stein, Pound, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Wyndham Lewis, for instance, and of course Joyce. James Joyce says, "I am reading (Zeno's Conscience) with great pleasure. Why be discouraged? You must know it is by far your best work." The all-important Joyce link, which reminds me that I first came across Svevo's name in Richard Ellmann's superb James Joyce. Once again, Titania, a brilliant, generously sized review. Good sale. Gotta scamper off.
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