https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/life-long-learning/book-overview

I love Zeno’s Conscience (or the Confessions of Zeno, as I first read it) by Italo Svevo. I’m incredibly happy to be discussing it with a revitalized Stanford Book Salon. Alexa Fitzgerald, who is now running the program, is committed to great conversations–and she’s a former professional stand-up comedian. We’re in good hands!

If you’re not familiar with this classic, come read it with me! It’s truly a modernist masterpiece, but it’s also very approachable. You won’t need a handbook to understand it, unlike, say, Ulysses.

Speaking of Ulysses–this is a true story–Svevo once hired an English tutor from the Berlitz office in Trieste. That tutor was James Joyce.