Release date is 2026-05-03

Tuula Temonen and Tapio Riikonen

"Korkokeinottelua" by Matilde Serao is a novel written in the late 19th century. It portrays the speculative fever around exorbitant “high-interest” banks in Naples and the damage this frenzy inflicts on ordinary lives. The narrative follows a shy schoolteacher, Alessandro de Peruta, and Eleonora Triggiano, whose husband Carlo is being pulled into dubious finance, while Paolo Collemagno hovers between love and alarm. Expect a keen social study of greed, credulity, and conscience.

The opening of the novel shows de Peruta reluctantly carrying colleagues’ savings to the flashy Ruffo-Scilla bank, where crowds shove deposits through windows, receipts are dashed off without counting small sums, and cash is bundled into a perfumed handkerchief before clerks vanish through a back door—signs of a dangerous swindle. The scene then shifts to Eleonora, whom Paolo discreetly adores; she confesses her distress over Carlo’s night away and his revels at the Talvipuutarha, and begs Paolo to investigate the banking craze. Back at their building, de Peruta mentions warning his family against these schemes, while Eleonora receives a cold note from Carlo, away on Costa bank business. Finally, a pious neighbor, donna Concettina, arrives with 4,000 lire, eager to place them with Costa at an impossible 20% per month—echoing street myths about powerful backers—leaving Eleonora more alarmed as the mania seeps into every corner of life. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Tampere: Kustantaja osuuskunta Wäinämöinen, 1908