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Another Century
Zeno’s Conscience
In the aftermath of World War I, Italo Svevo wrote his masterpiece and finished it exactly 100 years ago.
When poison gases no longer suffice, an ordinary man, in the secrecy of a room in this world, will invent an incomparable explosive, compared to which the explosives currently in existence will be considered harmless toys. And another man, also ordinary, but a bit sicker than others, will steal this explosive and will climb up at the center of the earth, to set it on the spot where it can have the maximum effect. There will be an enormous explosion that no one will hear, and the earth, once again a nebula, will wander through the heavens, freed of parasites and sickness.
“Zeno’s Conscience” (“La coscienza di Zeno”) was published in 1923, one year later. The paragraph above is the surprising conclusion of a humorous and witty travel through Zeno’s memories.
