Heart Conditions: Sentimental Adventures in Turn-of-the-Century Italy

Matilde Serao was a giant of early 20th century Italian literature as well as a pioneer. She was a journalist -- she ran her own newspaper for several years -- and an accomplished novelist and short story writer who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times. She was also a genuine character. Edith Wharton described her like this, "With her strident dress and intonation, she seemed an incongruous figure in that drawing-room where everything was in half-shades and semi-tones, ...