SOURCE: "A Time for Heroes," in Spectator, Vol. ls 6d, No. 7235, February 24, 1967, p. 230.

In the following review of Short Sentimental Journey, and Other Stories, Tanner suggests that Svevo has an "unfading fascination for the relationship between mind and body. "

Literary success came late to Italo Svevo, for it was not until 1925 that Confessions of Zeno (published two years before at his own expense) suddenly earned him recognition and fame as an important modern writer with a quietly ironic-pessimistic vision all his own. This success understandably prompted him to further writing and, at the age of sixty-five, he found no subject more engaging or challenging than his own experience of growing old. 'Senility' in one form or another was, in a sense, always his subject.

The comparatively young 'heroes' of his first two novels, A Life and As a Man Grows Older, have senile souls, and at his death...