Italo Svevo

Italo Svevo, the pen name of Ettore Schmitz, was born in Trieste in 1861. He received commercial training, worked first as a bank employee, and later became a businessman and manager in his family’s company. His best-known novels include *A Life*, *As a Man Grows Older*, and *Confessions of Zeno*. His fiction is noted for its psychological portrayal of ordinary people and everyday life. Svevo gained literary recognition only late in life, with support from James Joyce and Valéry Larbaud. He died in 1928 as a result of a car accident.