The novel was presented by Lorenzo Mondo as the most “Turin” among those by Giovanni Arpino.[1]. The story takes place entirely in Turin, and the book is structured in the form of a diary, similarly to The Young Nun, the novel that gave the writer fame. Lorenzo Mondo again saw in this work references «to the lucid hypostasis of madness, to the contrast between the charm of evil and the narrow-mindedness of virtue» as in Louis Stevenson‘s Doctor Jekill and Fyodor Dostoevsky‘s Impersonator. Guido Piovene reviewed A Lost Soul as Arpino’s best book together with The Young Sister, and made a comparison between this novel and the temptations of Saint Anthony by some painters, concluding that the negative experiences lived by the protagonist make him develop a a sort of “fear of living”.[2]

The film Lost Soul was based on the novel.

Milan, Rizzoli, 1981.

First edition.

Volume belonging to the series: La Scala. In 8vo (21.8 cm); editorial binding in full cloth with title on the spine plus illustrated dust jacket with titles on the cover and spine; pp. 138, (6).

On the dust jacket: Ennio Onnis, Our Ghost, oil, 1978.