Matilde Serao (1856–1927) wrote the novel "The Land of Cockayne" in 1901 as a fictional study of the passion for gambling and the evil effect of the national lottery in Naples on all classes of society. It is the joy and curse of the main characters Marquis di Formosa, the glove-maker Gaetano, or the factory girl Carmela and her insolent lover Raffaele.

Matilde Serao (7 March, 1856 – 25 July 1927) was a Greek-born Italian journalist and novelist.