A Perfect Hoax by Italo Svevo

Author:Italo Svevo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alma Books
Published: 2019-01-17T16:06:09+00:00

6

It was true that the time of waiting did not produce any fables, but in the long days that followed, entirely without event, Mario had to recognize that it was not monotonous, because not one of those days resembled the one that had preceded it or the one that followed it. Here is the story of some of them.

On several occasions Brauer went to the bank and, not finding the news he expected, he tried to persuade Mario to send a telegram to know quickly what had happened to his cheque. But Mario did not follow the businessman’s advice, because he thought that his experience of literature would provide the answers in this case. He knew from bitter experience how dangerous it was, in literature, to disturb one’s patrons with reminders. At times he let himself be convinced that he should rush to the bank to send off that telegram, but then he was restrained by the terrible vision of an angry Westermann who might decide to do without the novel. A novel is different from all other merchandise. Mario thought that, if he were to lose that purchaser, he would have to wait a further forty years for another.

Besides, if he did decide to send that discourteous message (courtesy costs too much in a telegram), he would need to have Gaia’s agreement. But that fellow was not to be found. Now that it was possible to move about, he had resumed his visits to his clients in nearby Istria. Mario gathered from one or two people that he had been seen in Trieste, but he did not manage to find him either at his home or in his office.

It was a very hard time. The money did not come from Vienna, and neither Westermann nor his adored, infamous critic turned up. Certainly the contracts and the cheque had been signed, but who knows if the ugly, fur-wrapped man had interpreted Westermann’s wishes exactly? After all, that individual who could only speak German was no more than a version of the Italian Gaia. And so he could have been mistaken.

Mario had some experience of business and, it must be acknowledged, some experience of literature too. What he was utterly ignorant of was business in the field of literature. That was the sole reason why he did not manage to uncover the hoax. If literature had not been concerned, he would never have supposed that such a practical businessman as Westermann must be would have offered so much money for something that he could have obtained very much more cheaply, for example for the small sum lent by Brauer. And now Mario owed that money, and he was no longer willing to admit that he would have surrendered the novel for nothing. But perhaps that is what is done in literary business, and editors must also have some of the humanity of patrons.

And Giulio, from his innocent bed, helped to dispel Mario’s doubts. He said that Westermann, as he imagined him, must be a man for whom two hundred thousand crowns were more or less insignificant.

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