Senilità
_-_Italo_Svevo-_Senilit%C3%A0.jpg)
First edition of Senilità
|
|
| Author | Italo Svevo |
|---|---|
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
| Genre | novel |
| Published | 1898 |
Senilità is Italo Svevo's second novel, published in 1898. The novel's protagonist is Emilio Brentani, an inept man torn between his longing for love and pleasure and his regret for not enjoying either.
In the novel, Svevo addresses the problems of ineptitude and of the inability on the part of the protagonist to manage his own inner, sentimental life. The indecisiveness and inaction with which Emilio deals with affairs in his life lead him to shut out his memories, leaving him in a state of spiritual old age (hence the title "Senility").
The story was covered in the Italian 1962 movie Careless, directed by Mauro Bolognini.
Emilio has a modest life in a shared apartment with his sister Amalia, who, not having too many relationships with the outside world, is mainly limited to taking care of him.
One day Emilio meets Angiolina and falls in love with her, and causes him to neglect his sister and his friend Stefano Balli, balancing his few artistic recognitions with his successes with women. Emilio tries to explain to Angiolina that the relationship between the two will be subordinate to his duties, such as those in the confrontations of his own family. He is unable to realize that in reality, Angiolina will need to grab the knife by the handle, to invest less sentiment and to feel less, making this relationship unofficial.
Stefano does not believe in love, and tries to convince Emilio to just have fun with Angiolina, who in the rest of Trieste has a bad reputation. Emilio ends up, instead, opening his heart to this woman, going so far as to disregard the evidence from his friends who have tried in vain to warn him: in fact, Angiolina starts to show some interest in an umbrella maker and for the same Stefano Balli. Moreover, as indicated at the beginning of the novel, the agreement that Brentani desires is that of a bond without commitment.
Stefano, meanwhile, begins to frequent Brentani's house with greater regularity. In an ironic twist, Amalia falls in love with him. His masculine charm thus draws in both female protagonists. Emilio, jealous of his sister, pushes Stefano away, while Amalia begins numbing herself with ether. She ultimately becomes ill with pneumonia (this attitude towards life by Amalia is a much closer comparison to the suicide of Alfonso Nitti, the protagonist of the novel Una Vita (A Life). The illness leads to her death.
Emilio stops attending to Angiolina, despite loving her, and pushes Stefano Balli away. It is then that you learn that Angiolina has fled with a bank cashier to the capital of the Empire, Vienna. The novel ends with a meaningful image: years later, in remembrance, Emilio sees the two idealized women according to their own desires and merged into a single person, with the appearance and character of his beloved sister.
...
Wikipedia