Italo Svevo was many men--writer and paint manufacturer, socialist and capitalist, Italian nationalist yet friend to Italy's enemies, and Jew in a predominantly Catholic culture. This new biography, the most complete to date, clarifies the contradictions in Svevo's character, finding their source in the complex political milieu of his native Trieste, in his friendships with James Joyce and the painter Veruda, and in the culture that largely ignored Svevo's literary accomplishments.