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)]. 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.