Quantity:

Trade in Yours

For a �1.20 Gift Card

Learn more

More Buying Choices

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Sorry, this item is not available in

Image not available for
Colour:

Image not available

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Tell the Publisher!
I�d like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Italo Svevo (Author), William Weaver (Translator)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

RRP:	�12.99
Price:	�8.96 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Deal Price:
You Save:	�4.03 (31%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

Want it Thursday, 20 June? Choose Express delivery at checkout. Details

Formats	Amazon Price		New from	Used from
Hardcover	--		--	--
Paperback	�8.96		--	--

Trade In this Item for up to �1.20

Trade in Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to �1.20, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional �5 promotional Gift Card, when you trade-in at least �10 worth of books. Learn more

› See more product promotions

Book Description

Publication Date: 26 Sep 2002 | ISBN-10: 014018774X | ISBN-13: 978-0140187748 | Edition: New Ed

This enormously engaging, strange novel is both an engrossing saga of a family and a hilarious account of addiction and failure as its helpless hero, notionally undergoing psychiatric help, manages spectacularly to fail to give up smoking, run his business or make sense of his private life.

A hymn to self-delusion and procrastination ZENO'S CONSCIENCE has provoked enormous affection in its readers both in Italian and English since its first publication in the 1920s.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; }

A hymn to self-delusion and procrastination ZENO'S CONSCIENCE has provoked enormous affection in its readers both in Italian and English since its first publication in the 1920s.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Fall (Penguin Modern Classics)
Albert Camus

3.8 out of 5 stars (13)

Paperback

�6.29
The Rings Of Saturn
W G Sebald

4.2 out of 5 stars (35)

Paperback

�6.29
So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vintage Classics)
› William Maxwell

4.6 out of 5 stars (12)

Paperback

�5.59
In Search of Lost Time: The Way by Swann's: The …
Marcel Proust

4.8 out of 5 stars (13)

Paperback

�6.89
As A Man Grows Older (New York Review Books …
› Italo Svevo

5.0 out of 5 stars (3)

Paperback

�7.59
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand …
› Luigi Pirandello

5.0 out of 5 stars (5)

Paperback

�8.52

Product details

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (26 Sep 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 014018774X
ISBN-13: 978-0140187748
Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 19.7 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 102,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Italo Svevo Page

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

"Svevo's masterpiece . . . Ýin a fresh translation by the dean of Italian literary translators." -"Los Angeles Times"
"An excellent new rendering Ýof a marvellous and original book."-James Wood, "London Review of Books"
"A masterpiece, a novel overflowing with human truth in all its murkiness, laughter and terror, a book as striking and relevant today as when it was first published, and a book that is in every good way-its originality included-like life." -Claire Messud, "The New Republic
"
"Hilarious. . . . Effortlessly inventive and eerily prescient. . . . William Weaver . . . updates the novelist's idiosyncratic prose with great affection." -"The Atlantic Monthly
"
"An event in modern publishing. For the first time, I believe, in English, we get the true, dark music, the pewter tints, of Svevo's great last novel. . . . ÝSvevo is a master." -Joan Acocella, "The New Yorker
"
"ÝAn exhilarating and utterly original novel. . . . Weaver's version strikes one as excellent." -P. N. Furbank, "Literary Review
"
"One of the great comic novels of the twentieth century. . . . ÝSvevo is perhaps "the "most significant Italian modernist novelist." -"The Times Literary Supplement
"
"ÝA neglected masterpiece. Seventy-five years old, the novel feels entirely modern." -"The Boston Globe
"
"A reason for celebration. . . . If you have never read Svevo, do so as soon as you can. He is beautiful and important." -"New Statesman
"
"One of the indispensable 20th-century novels. . . . A revolutionary book, and arguably (in fact, probably) the finest of all Italian novels." -"Kirkus Reviews
"
"No one has done more to make modern Italian literatureavailable in English than William Weaver. . . . ÝHis new translation is scrupulously accurate." -"Anniston Star
"

About the Author

Italo Svevo (1861-1928) lived most of his life in Trieste, now part of Italy, but then a port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. ZENO'S CONSCIENCE is his greatest work, seen by James Joyce as one of the century's handful of masterpieces. His other novels include AS A MAN GROWS OLDER and A LIFE.

William Weaver is most famously the translator of Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
the doctor with whom I discussed the question told me to begin my work with a historical analysis of my smoking habit. Read the first page

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Fall (Penguin Modern Classics) by Albert Camus Paperback
3.8 out of 5 stars (13)

�6.29

So Long, See You Tomorrow (Vintage Classics) by William Maxwell Paperback
4.6 out of 5 stars (12)

�5.59

The Rings Of Saturn by W G Sebald Paperback
4.2 out of 5 stars (35)

�6.29

Christ Stopped at Eboli (Penguin Modern Classics) by Carlo Levi Paperback
4.5 out of 5 stars (17)

�6.89

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

4.2 out of 5 stars

8 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Italian novel with quite a prolonged narrative 23 Feb 2007

By Ruffian McRuffian

Format:Paperback

Svevo's novel is intended to constitute the confessions of its narrator, a chain-smoking hypochondriac named Zeno Cosini. These confessions are produced at the behest of Zeno's psychoanalyst and take the form of a series of elliptical episodes, which cover the breadth of his life. Amongst other things, Zeno details his unpremeditated marriage proposal to a woman who he doesn't initially desire. In fact, much of the novel entails the narrator reflecting on his volatile relationships with others, particularly his brother-in-law Guido,his wife's sisters and his mistress.

The novel is humorous in places and provides an interesting insight into life, however fictional, in the city of Trieste. The justifications that Zeno provides for his, often morally reprehensible, actions are also quite interesting. Unfortunately, the narrative moves at a frustratingly slow pace and some of Zeno's musings are also slightly prolonged.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very rewarding 13 Jan 2004

By Depressaholic

Format:Paperback

This book is an ironic twist on Freudian analysis. The protagonist (Zeno) is trying to give up smoking and, under the influence of the psychotherapist Dr. S., is reviewing the major events in his life to discover why he is finding it so difficult. Svevo was apprently not a fan of psychoanalysis (which was still in its infancy when the book was written) and his use of it as a framework is heavily ironic.
The chapters are structured around a few important events (the death of his father, marriage, an affair, a business failure) and these are not in themselves particularly special. The beauty of the book is the honesty with which Zeno records his thoughts and feelings. The attitudes he has are not always the ones most acceptible to the world, and it is this difference between his inner monologue and the way he behaves that sets the book apart. He is a weak and vain man, but he is a good man, something of an everyman. Because of this ordinariness, it was easy to identify with him (for me at least). This made the reading of an admittedly slowgoing book very easy indeed, and I recognised bits of myself time after time, which is a testament to Svevo's observation of people (and of himself). The book is slow and generally lacks a clear narrative, so won't be to everyone's taste, but I found it a very rewarding read.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic of modernist irony 22 Aug 2010

By Paul Bowes TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Svevo's novel is considered one of the masterpieces of European modernism, and a pinnacle of Italian - or Triestine - writing in the twentieth century. As is well known, it received an early impetus when it was championed by James Joyce. Those who find Joyce's linguistic games a barrier to enjoyment need not fear Svevo: Zeno's Conscience is not `difficult' in the manner of Ulysses. This is not to say that the novel is a throwback to the realist fiction that dominated the last half of the nineteenth century, though its central figure is a bourgeois idler and the society in which he moves revolves around the typical bourgeois preoccupations with money and marriage. Rather, Svevo is an ironist somewhat in the manner of Thomas Mann, Musil, Proust or Gide: albeit an Italian ironist who knows his Boccaccio.

Zeno Cosini is an unlikely hero: the scion of a Triestine commercial family, he is on the face of it a textbook case of privileged neurosis - a self-centred hypochondriac whose consciousness varies a truly awesome lack of insight into his own character, abilities and motives with moments of piercing penetration. As such, having exhausted the resources of conventional medicine, he gravitates naturally towards the novel science of psychoanalysis. Encouraged to write by his analyst, he muses about his smoking habit, his father's character, his courtship of his wife, his infidelities, his commercial ventures, and finally his predictable disillusionment with psychoanalysis itself.

The novel is set mainly in the Trieste of the thirty years before the outbreak of the First World War, during which the city was an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and, by comparison with London or Paris, something of a backwater.... Read more ›

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Italian modern classic 2 July 2012

By H. Tee

Format:Paperback

Confessions of Zeno was published in 1923 by Italian Svevo - it is one of the top 100 books of World literature. It is also titled "Zeno's Conscience" which I think more representative of the style really. I read the Penguin classic translated by Zoete.

Ok, the basic story is the life of Zeno Cosini who lives in Trieste in the late 1800-early 1900s with the story ending in 1916 when Zeno is in his seventies. After an introduction from "Dr S" we have Zeno writing his own diary/analysis (and given to the Dr) as a therapy for his infirmities which are routed in psychological issues. Svevo's tale is based on the Oedipus complex of father hating, mother loving etc and the ideas of Freud as a foundation.

Zeno is a hypochondriac unlovable, prematurely bald, virtually chain smoking, short, fluent, adulterous, weak minded, rude, odius and educated chemist come lawyer. He is perpetually having his last cigarette (chapter 1) and suffering pains and need to limp. He has cringing moments that don't endear you to him; he is a literary David Brent ("The Office" manager). His mother Maria died when he was quite young (about 20); we have Zeno discussing the circumstances of father's death when Zeno was in his early 30s (chapter 2). Zeno falls in with the Malfenti family: a businessman patriarch, 4 daughters (3 of marriable age: Ada, Augusta and Alberta). The pivot of the most excellent dynamic arc of the whole story is basically he loves Ada (the pretty one) and ignores Augusta (the plain one). The sad, vaguely comic, incident when he proposes to all three, after successive refusals, end in an almost spiteful self loathing way hitched with Augusta (chapter 3). But at the same time needs to get along with rival Guido in business whilst he goes on to marry Ada.... He has a year long affair with Carla a sixteen year old whom he doesn't want to end up losing suffering much angst in the diary (whilst Augusta has his first kid) (chapter 4). There are further chapters but I won't spoil it by saying more. There are other characters like Olivi (a genuinely good business man who educates Zeno) and a friend Enrico.

This is a most excellent existentialish book. It is quite long but has a real vibrant, modern style which quickly draws you into the mind of Zeno; unlike other literature where the motives are somewhat understated this is full on, dare I say, `male' psychology stuff. You really do find yourself making your own judgements of his behaviour (such as thinking "Zeno I know you're not fooling even yourself there"). Zeno for the majority of the book is an annoying little anti-hero by the end he's just an old, understood anti-hero. If I had a criticism it would be that the last short chapter, when WW1 enters the story, is a little unnecessary and misplaced.

Some quotes:

"When you are actually dying you have other things to do than think about death"

(of his father) "With a supreme effort he struggled to his feet, raised his arm high above his head, and brought it down with the whole weight of his falling body on my cheek. Then he slipped from the bed on to the floor and lay there - dead!"

"I felt unhappier than ever, and in such a morbid state of self-pity one may easily fall prey to unwholesome suggestions"

"The resolutions existed for their own sake, and had no practical results whatever"

"My dismay at finding that I was not really good was becoming less acute. I felt as if I had solved that distressing problem. One is neither good nor bad, just as one is not so many other things besides"

"One of the great difficulties of life is guessing what a woman wants. Listening to what she says is no help, for a whole speech may be wiped out by a single look"

In summary, this is an excellent book, though lacking a certain freedom of forthrightness and naturalism (there is no sex for example). I normally like a lot of story and could imagine others thinking this tale lacking enough narrative but overall a male oriented literary classic (at last, none of your "Portrait of a Lady" here). Read more ›

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

› See all 8 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

Write a customer review

Would you like to see more reviews about this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars

Were these reviews helpful? Let us know

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Zeno's Conscience

A very amusing and enjoyable read. It is very definitely a classic and opens a lost world but with a very defined look at the future.

Published 1 month ago by Elizabeth Carmichael

2.0 out of 5 stars Can't see what all the fuss is about

Why is this an Italian classic?

I just don't get it. It's a pedestrian, plodding account of a man's adulteries and business incompetencies in pre-WW1 Trieste. Read more

Published on 26 Nov 2010 by Jezza

5.0 out of 5 stars Zeno's genius!

What a wonderful book! Thank you to the Amazon member who made a list with this book near the top.

Zeno is the most brilliantly conceived comic neurotic I have ever... Read more

Published on 15 Jan 2009 by J. E. Holden

5.0 out of 5 stars Smokin' Good!

While I tend to agree with the other reviers, I simply find it misleading that this book hasn't recieved a 5-star rating. Read more

Published on 22 April 2008 by asp

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }

Customer Discussions

This product's forum

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
fiction discussion forum Come on - why don't we write our own book right here in the fiction forum ? I'll do the first sentence, and then jump in....hold on, here we go...	7204	2 minutes ago
fiction discussion forum Nobody reads on the loo do they ? not really - and yet so many people have books in the loo !	0	18 minutes ago
fiction discussion forum What are you reading now?	8444	1 hour ago
fiction discussion forum What is the POINT of zombie novels, exactly?	133	2 hours ago
fiction discussion forum Self-published books: pain or gain?	6113	3 hours ago
fiction discussion forum Ideas for gentle reads for more mature people	65	6 hours ago
fiction discussion forum Can anyone recommend a good book	91	7 hours ago
fiction discussion forum Fed up with all the books not having an Ending?	33	7 hours ago