IL SIGNOR IC). A tale rather than a novel, slight in form and in plot, (II signor lo) ('Mr. Myself,' 1882), by Salvatore Farina, is one of the finest works of the Milanese novelist. Lit up by a gentle yet sympathetic humor, partaking both of the caricature of Dickens and the playful tenderness of Gold smith, no more delightful picture of the petty domestic tyrant and unconscious egoist can be imagined than this Italian professor of phi losophy, Marco Antonio Abate, whose love of creature comfort sacrifices first his wife and then his daughter to his gentle despotism. The first part of the novel is autobiographical. With a bland, almost childlike artlessness, Marcan tonio's diary betrays his selfishness in uncon scious self-indictment, a masterly portrayal of his egoism. In the subsequent part of the story, the lonesome father (his daughter long since driven from his heart and home) seeks solace in remarriage. With an unctuous humor the author shows Marcantonio under the as sumed name of *Mr. I. O.* advertising for a
wife, alternately hoping and despairing as the replies come in, one of which by a trick on the part of the son-in-law brings about the reconciliation so inevitable in Farina's novels.
A past master in the portrayal of the petty incidents of domestic life, an artist in the treat ment of simple characters, a great admirer of family ties and children, a writer possessing a graceful and charming style, Farina in the kindly optimism of signor has succeeded in uniting the technical execution of the realist to the tenderness of the idealist. In Marcan tonio he has depicted an ingratiating character, a sympathetic figure despite all his defects, lovable because so essentially human. Consult Croce, B., in La Critica (Vol. IV, 1906) ; Marc Monnier, (Un humoriste italien,' in La Revue des (Paris 1882, pp. 405-438); The Scottish Review (Vol. X, 1887, with a translation of some extracts, pp. 235-266).