Mattia Pascal endures a life of drudgery in a provincial town. Then, providentially, he discovers that he has been declared dead. Realizing he has a chance to start over, to do it right this time, he moves to a new city, adopts a new name, and a new course of life—only to find that this new existence is as insufferable as the old one. But when he returns to the world he left behind, it's too late: his job is gone, his wife has remarried. Mattia Pascal's fate is to live on as the ghost of the man he was.

An explorer of identity and its mysteries, a connoisseur of black humor, Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello is among the most teasing and profound of modern masters. The Late Mattia Pascal , here rendered into English by the outstanding translator William Weaver, offers an irresistible introduction to this great writer's work

皮蘭德婁（1867～1936）意大利著名小說傢、戲劇傢、詩人。諾貝爾文學奬得主。一生創作瞭劇本四十多部、長篇小說七部、短篇小說三百多部、詩集四捲。 皮蘭德婁最初的文學創作從寫詩開始，但他青年時代模仿卡爾杜奇寫齣的抒情詩不很成功。在20世紀的最初十年裏，他主要寫小說，小說創 作使他蜚聲文壇。1904年發錶的第二部長篇小說《已故的帕斯卡爾》為他贏得瞭廣泛的國際聲譽1910年後，他轉入戲劇創作，取得瞭卓越的成就。1934年，獲諾貝爾文學奬。