Alberto Moravia Boeken

De onverschilligen verhaalt drie dagen uit het leven van een gezin in Rome dat erin slaagt de indruk te wekken welgesteld te zijn, terwijl het aan de rand van de armoede leeft. De onderlinge verhoudingen worden gekenmerkt door een gebrek aan communicatie, het onvermogen zich te uiten, egoïsme en berekening. Als de familieleden zich langzaam bewust worden van zichzelf en hun omstandigheden, worden ze apathisch en zijn ze niet meer tot handelen in staat. Hun leven verwordt tot wanhoop, escapisme, paniek. Onderhuids is de roman een scherpe aanval op de Italiaanse middenklasse aan de vooravond van het fascisme, en De onverschilligen veroorzaakte in het kleingeestige Italië van de jaren twintig en dertig dan ook een schandaal. De boeken van Alberto Moravia, ook De onverschilligen, waren tijdens het fascistische regime verboden.

In this set of novellas, a few facts are constant. Sergio is a young intellectual, poor and proud of his new membership in the Communist Party. Maurizio is handsome, rich, successful with women, and morally ambiguous. Sergio’s young, sensual lover becomes collateral damage in the struggle between these two men. All three of these unfinished stories, found packed in a suitcase after Alberto Moravia’s death, share this narrative premise. But from there, each story unfolds in a unique way. The first patiently explores the slow unfurling of Sergio’s resentment toward Maurizio. The second reveals the calculated bargain Maurizio offers in exchange for his conversion to Sergio’s beloved Communism. And the third switches dramatically to the first person, laying bare Sergio’s conflicted soul. Anyone interested in literature will relish the opportunity to watch Moravia at work, tinkering with his story and working at it from three unique perspectives.

Wanneer een jonge Italiaan terugkeert naar Rome, beleeft hij door relaties met vrouwen opnieuw een traumatische jeugdervaring.

Set against the backdrop of Mussolini's Rome, the narrative follows Adriana, a young woman whose beauty leads her into a life of modeling and relationships with men. As she navigates her choices, she struggles to pinpoint the moment she forsakes her dreams of a traditional home and family, ultimately becoming a prostitute. The novel explores themes of desire, exploitation, and the stark contrast between personal aspirations and societal pressures.

SECRECY AND SILENCE are second nature to Marcello Clerici, the hero of The Conformist, a book which made Alberto Moravia one of the world's most read postwar writers. Clerici is a man with everything under control - a wife who loves him, colleagues who respect him, the hidden power that comes with his secret work for the Italian political police during the Mussolini years. But then he is assigned to kill his former professor, now in exile, to demonstrate his loyalty to the Fascist state, and falls in love with a strange, compelling woman; his life is torn open - and with it the corrupt heart of Fascism. Moravia equates the rise of Italian Fascism with the psychological needs of his protagonist for whom conformity becomes an obsession in a life that has included parental neglect, an oddly self-conscious desire to engage in cruel acts, and a type of male beauty which, to Clerici's great distress, other men find attractive. "Moravia brings to light the devil in the flesh and in the psyche." - - The Atlantic Monthly

This collection of erotic short stories examines human desire and explores the boundaries between reality and fantasy. The stories explore Freudian obsessions, the innocence of youth, frustration and man's addiction to success. The author has also written The Woman of Rome.

Dino, a failed artist consumed by boredom, finds his life revitalized in an obsession with a young model, whose life he tries unsuccessfully to control.