Adolfo Albertazzi was born in Bologna in 1865. Before his death in 1924, he had produced thirty-three volumes of fiction, literary criticism, and history. In addition to critical studies on Tasso and Foscolo, he published an extensive history of the Italian novel entitled Il romanzo [The Novel (1903)]. Read More Influenced by the Neoclassicism of his mentor and friend Carducci as well as the psychological Realism of Maupassant, Albertazzi wrote several novels, of which the most famous is L'Ave [The Ave (1896, 1917)]. He is best known, however, for his often humorous collections of short stories.