I read this in the English translation of Archibald Calquhoun, which is very readable and seems accurate from what I can judge. The novel was first published in 1892 when Svevo was 31, and had been working in a bank in Trieste for 12 years. He would stay in this employment for another 7 years. It was published under the pseudonym Italo Svevo, and describes the life of somebody working in a bank in Trieste. He wanted to call it un inetto – an inept – but was persuaded to change it to una vita. It conveys better than any other novel I have read the utter tedium of the world of banking seen from the perspective of a junior employee, the hero, Alfonso. This is combined with an interest in intellectual fads of the time, notably Darwinism and Nietzscheanism. The tension between Alfonso’s own goals and his actual achievements e.g. as a writer and philosopher or as a suitor for the daughter of his boss is comic rather than tragic. If the novel is a tragedy in the classical sense I would suggest that Alfonso’s tragic flaw is his extreme self-consciousness which leads him to disaster. The other characters are well delineated, notably the charming but superficial Annetta. Ineptitude, of the Alfonso variety, consists in always doing the wrong thing but for perfectly good reasons. In a world of bewildering complexity this seems to be a peculiarly modern trope. I liked the book a lot and will definitely tackle it in Italian. ( )

Alfonso the bank clerk and his life. Most interesting for the local social divisions -- between town and country folk, the eductated and uneducated, the rich and the poor. Alfonso exists miserably on the borders of all of these, and we hear about his angst in perhaps too oft repeated detail. ( )

This is the first ever book by Svevo apart from one on tram journeys. Triete is the backdrop - everyone is always walking up or down the Corso. Poor old Alfonso, the bank clerk, he does lead an unhappy life. It is all very analytical and soul searching and you rapidly realise he is doomed. ( )