Should I give the author or not? I don't know the rules and can't find out how long we're supposed to keep guessing. The author is Italo Svevo.

Thx ishmael. Sorry S/S, even having the author didn't help me. I s'pose you can give us the book if no one has any objections, and have a go at another quote.

Just for my interest, since I've always loved Joyce, tell us a bit about this Svevo character, and his books. From your posts, you seem to be well read, and I'd love to find out about an author of whom I've never heard.

Thank you. Books are one of my passions, but there's still so much I have to learn and so much I have to read. It's great exchanging ideas with other book lovers here.

The book quoted is "Zeno's Conscience," published in Italian in 1923 (Svevo was then sixty-two) and in English in 1930. Svevo was born in Austrian Trieste and his birth name was Ettore Schmitz. His father (Francesco Schmitz) was a German Jew and his mother (Allegra Moravia) was an Italian Jew.

In 1906, James Joyce made a trip to Trieste and became a tutor of English for the Schmitz family. He became a family friend and was instrumental in the publication of "Zeno's Conscience." Even after going to Switzerland and then to Paris, Joyce kept in touch with the Svevo family. The family loved Joyce's writing.

Svevo changed his name, of course, and married his cousin, Livia Veneziani, a Catholic. He began keeping a diary and his alter ego was Zeno Cosini, the self-impressed, self-deluded, comic first person narrator of "Zeno's Conscience."

In August 1928, Svevo, who suffered from heart problems, went to the Italian Alps with his wife and some other family members, and on September 11th, they had a car crash and Svevo was severely injured and subsequently died.

"Zeno's Conscience" is a comic masterpiece and Zeno Cosini is an unforgettable character. His amorous adventures are hilarious and every cigarette is going to his last, but of course, it never is. He alternately loves then hates his life. It was the same with Svevo, although I think he was a little more satisfied with life. It's said that when Svevo was dying he requested a cigarette and was refused. He retorted, "That really would have been the last cigarette."

"Zeno's Conscience" isn't a comic novel in the tradition of Wodehouse or even Waugh. It's something totally different and I really can't compare Svevo to any other author. I just know that I'll never forget the character of Zeno Cosini. He really came to life for me. Many Italians name this book as their all time favorite, although I know "The Betrothed" is sometimes considered "the masterpiece" of Italian literature and personally, I consider "the masterpiece" to be "The Leopard." Still, that takes nothing away from "Zeno's Conscience."

The next quote should be a lot easier:

"I was born in 1927, the only child of middle-class parents, both English, and themselves born in the same grotesquely elongated shadow, which they never rose sufficiently above history to leave, of that monstrous dwarf Queen Victoria."

"..that monstrous dwarf Queen Victoria" phrase rings a bell, but whatever it is, its been ages since I read it.

Oh, man. I had to look that one up in my library to make sure I was right, because it's been years since I read it. That's the Magus, by John Fowles. I think I must have read that in high school.

Thx for all the info re: Svevo. It sounds like something I'd enjoy. It sound, superficially, a bit like Eco's recent "The Queen of Lenane," or Mark Helprin's "A Soldier of the Good War," two very interesting book.

Now, for my quote. A fairly easy one, I think.

They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

Ah! The Magus. Great stuff. Really liked Fowles The Maggot also...

But as for kendo's quote..phwaw! It's american..it's modern, perhaps experimental...but I definitely haven't read it....I'd remember "dingledodies"!

Well, it is American, and modern. I don't know that I'd call it experimental. And you're right that "dingledodies" is the key word!

I'd remember "dingledodies," too, and I don't. I have no idea. I don't think I've read this one.

Where are mark f and Mike? One of them's got to know this one.

I distinctly remember the word "dingledodies" but have no idea what book it might be from.

Aw man. That's On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. Don't tell me you didn't love that book!

Here's a poem. Same "generation."

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient
heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the
machinery of night..."

Oh, that's Howl by Ginsberg. I also knew On The Road but I was too late.

Here's a weird one:

The following sentence is true.
The preceding sentence is false.

Taken together, these sentences have the same effect as the original Epimenides paradox; yet seperately, they are harmless and even potentially useful

I have no idea.

Richard Feynman? Douglas Hofstadter?

quote:

Taken together, these sentences have the same effect as the original Epimenides paradox; yet seperately, they are harmless and even potentially useful

No clue.

You're getting there Ishmael.

Most likely a philosophy book, a philosopher who deal with paradoxes obviously, still have no clue...

it's not Wittgenstein is it? hmmmm...I shld be better on my logical paradoxes...

quote:

it's not Wittgenstein is it? hmmmm...I shld be better on my logical paradoxes...

Nope, it's not. It's Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach. You were getting there, though.

Another:

"For mark you, Phaedrus, beauty alone is both divine and visible; and so it is the sense way, the artist's way, little Phaedrus, to the spirit."

I know this one. I was going to use this story myself. This is "Death in Venice," by Thomas Mann.

Really easy one, but I think it's thematically appropriate to follow "Death in Venice," and it is absolutely one of my favorites:

"She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."