Le Juif

The narrator: Filippo Ebreo, summarizes his misfortunes from the death of his father until his return to Italian soil, where, returning from France, he finds himself as poor as the day he left his native country... Extract: Finally, I met her; she rejected my gallant words with horror. But I was the prettiest boy in Venice. In the conversation, I told him that for three months I had been going without wine to save the value of one of my necklaces, and be able to offer it to him. She did not answer, but consulted me on the misfortune which had befallen her since she had not seen me. His brothers would get together to pare down whatever specie of gold they could get. (They plunged the sequins and the napoleons into a bath of etching.) The quartermaster had been imprisoned, and for fear of arousing suspicion, the one who was the cashier at the pagatore did not want to take any step in his favor. Stella wasn't asking me to go to the citadel; on my side I did not pronounce this name, but I asked her to wait for me the next evening