Italo Svevo

La coscienza di Zeno

Bologna, L. Cappelli Editore, 1923 (1 May), original ivory wrappers and spine printed in black and red; publisher’s catalogue and price («L. 10,00») printed to the rear wrapper, in 8°, pp. 519 [1].

Rare first edition.

Published in 1923, Zeno's Conscience had a print run of 1500 copies; as usual, some of the printing expenses were covered by the author.

James Joyce, Valery Larbaud, Eugenio Montale e Italo Svevo...

Much like Svevo’s previous books (which had been published in the late Eighteen hundreds), it went completely unnoticed by critics when released.
Introduced to it by Joyce (who had taught Svevo English when living in Trieste), in early 1925 Valery Larbaud praised the book; in December that same year, Montale wrote the article Omaggio a Italo Svevo (A homage to Italo Svevo).

Endorsed by two of the greatest writers of the early Twentieth century, Svevo’s book began to be read widely. The author, however, died in a car accident in September 1928, and only briefly witnessed the literary world acknowledge his success as a novelist.

A ground breaking work in Italian literature

Zeno's Conscience is now considered a ground breaking work in Italian literature: along with Six characters in search of an author and Henry IV  (both by Pirandello), it is one of the three works published in the early 1920’s that followed in the footsteps of Modernism.

It has been recently observed that there are about thirty copies of the book in libraries and sales catalogues; most of them are poor copies.

Bibliography

— Mughini, Trieste e il “caso Svevo”, p. 105 [on]
— Gambetti, Preziosi del Novecento (in Alai 3, 2017), p. 21