or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
22 used & new from £5.10
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

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

by Italo Svevo (Author), William Weaver (Translator) "the doctor with whom I discussed the question told me to begin my work with a historical analysis of my smoking habit ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.17 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.82 (35%)
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
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 24? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
19 new from £5.10 3 used from £5.13
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (New edition) £12.99 £8.44 19 used & new from £5.50
Paperback (Reprint) 10 used & new from £7.49

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi

Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics) + If This Is a Man / The Truce
Price For Both: £14.13

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

As a Man Grows Older (New York Review Books Classics)

As a Man Grows Older (New York Review Books Classics)

by Italo Svevo
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.48
The Late Mattia Pascal (Dedalus European Classics)

The Late Mattia Pascal (Dedalus European Classics)

by Luigi Pirandello
3.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.79
The Path to the Spiders' Nests (Penguin Modern Classics)

The Path to the Spiders' Nests (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Italo Calvino
£5.98
In Search of Lost Time: v. 1: The Way by Swann's: The Way by Swann's Vol 1 (In Search of Lost Time 1)

In Search of Lost Time: v. 1: The Way by Swann's: The Way by Swann's Vol 1 (In Search of Lost Time 1)

by Marcel Proust
5.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £6.46
The Trial (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)

The Trial (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)

by F Kafka
£3.16
› Explore similar items

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: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 130,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

Product Description

Product Description

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.


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
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics)
88% buy the item featured on this page:
Zeno's Conscience (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
£7.17
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (Eridanos library)
5% buy
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (Eridanos library) 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£6.07
As a Man Grows Older (New York Review Books Classics)
3% buy
As a Man Grows Older (New York Review Books Classics) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£6.48
The Master and Margarita (Penguin Classics)
2% buy
The Master and Margarita (Penguin Classics) 4.5 out of 5 stars (86)
£6.46
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading, 11 April 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Zeno's conscience (Hardcover)
Although this book seems largely unknown to British readers it has an important place in European literature. Svevo was one of the first writers to be influenced by Freud and this novel deals with his family and romantic relationships in this light.
The narrator is very self-aware as he tells his life story as part of his therapy, and this gives a very interesting insight to his cigarette addiction, marriage, affair, business dealings... Although it's also evident that he's creating his own version of events that will rationalise his actions.
The writing is at times too prosaic for my tastes, but this adds to the realistic story, and is perhaps the most important part of the book - the fact that it is the ordinary events of life that matter most (and that must surely be what drew Svevo to the attention of James Joyce who was one of the first people to promote him).
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very rewarding, 13 Jan 2004
By Depressaholic (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
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 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 5 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 (South London) - See all my reviews
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 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

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 10 months ago 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 19 months ago by Asp

Only search this product's reviews


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:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.