"Silk" by Alessandro Baricco

Although his father had imagined for him a brilliant military career for him, Hevrè Joncour ended up to earning a living with an unusual job, that, with singular irony, had a feature so sweet as to betray a vaguely feminine intonation. [si permette la licenza poetica qua, ma la frase non ha molto senso letteralmente.]
For a living, Hervè Joncour bought and sold silkworms.
It was 1986. Flaubert was writing Salammbò, the electric light was still a hypothesis and Abram Lincoln, ion the other side of the ocean, was fighting a war that he would never seen the end. [Infatti, la guerra civile americana è finita sei giorni prima del morto di Lincoln perché Robert E. Lee si è arreso a Appomattox, Virginia. Allora, si può dire che Lincoln ha visto il fine della guerra.]
Hervè Joncour was 36 years old.
He bought and sold. S silkworms.