At a wedding party thrown for one of his wife's nieces, an older man is given permission to go off of his normally strict diet. Partaking too heavily of the food and wine, he becomes irascible and is rebuked in public by his wife and daughter. That night, in bed, in which, try as he might, he is unable to find a comfortable position, he has terrifying visions of the punishments awaiting him for his life's misdeeds and of the depths he is willing to sink to to avoid these punishments.

This ironic tale of Svevo's was written nearly one hundred years ago (and was read by Joyce).

Genre: short story

Words: 6,686

Date of English translation: 2011