Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in "La signorina" e altri racconti display her talent across many genres--fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.
Banti's stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of...