“Scrittore?” said the brown-haired girl at the desk of the pensione in Naples, with a trill of joy in her voice.

“Es schwimmt eine Leiche im Landwehrkanal” — “A corpse swims in the Landwehr Canal” — went a music-hall song in the 20s, referring not specifically to Rosa [Luxemburg] but to the post-World War I poor who committed suicide out of desperation.