Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle, was one of the leading Italian novelists of the twentieth century whose novels explore matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism. He was also a journalist, playwright, essayist and film critic. Moravia was an atheist, his writing was marked by its factual, cold, precise style, often depicting the malaise of the bourgeoisie, underpinned by high social and cultural awareness. Moravia believed that writers must, if they were to represent reality, assume a moral position, a clearly conceived political, social, and philosophical attitude, but also that, ultimately, "A writer survives in spite of his beliefs".
Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief meets the US sitcom Laverne and Shirley.
Who would guess reading these stories of Rome's working class that their author took his name from his mother's birthplace in the Czech Republic? Or that his father was an eminent architect and painter, Jewish, from Venice who married an Austro-Hungarian countess? Or that the author,had a limp after years of debilitating illness, was bedridden throughout childhood and spent his teens in sanatoriums? Or that during WWII, he hid in the mountains with his wife, the writer Elsa Morante, and the poor? I didn't have a clue. What struck me was something else about Alberto Moravia.
A New York Times reviewer in the 1950s summed him up best. "He is not a pessimist." Neither am I.
I'd have put a slice of pizza on this book's cover. My food for good times and bad. Moravia's writing is full of both. When you're reading gets you depressed, pick this up. Gain some new smile lines.
Racconti romani = Roman Tales, Alberto Moravia Racconti romani (Roman Tales) is a series of sixty-one short stories written by the Italian author, Alberto Moravia. Written and published initially in the Italian newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, they were published as a collection in 1954 by Bompiani. All of the stories are set in Rome or its surroundings after World War II and focus on 'the common people of Rome' (Roma popolana). The characters in these stories tend to be the unemployed, ex-convicts, waiters, drivers, con artists, thieves and petty criminals, the average man (or woman) and the lower classes aspiring to climb out of poverty. 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 亘蹖爻鬲 賵 趩賳噩賲 賲丕賴 丿爻丕賲亘乇 爻丕賱 1986 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 毓賳賵丕賳: 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 乇賲蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 丌賱亘乇鬲賵 賲賵乇丕賵蹖丕貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 乇囟丕 賯蹖氐乇蹖賴貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳賯乇賴貙 1364貨 丿乇 286 氐貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇: 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 卮丕賱賵丿賴貙 1378貙 丿乇 286 氐貨 卮丕亘讴: 9649005404貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇: 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 卮賴賳丕夭 讴丕乇丌诏丕賴蹖貙 1378貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴 丕夭 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖鬲丕賱蹖丕卅蹖 - 丌丿丕亘 賵 乇爻賵賲 丕蹖鬲丕賱蹖丕卅蹖 - 賯乇賳 20 賲 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕 卮賴賳丕夭 讴丕乇丌诏丕賴蹖 賳蹖夭 鬲乇噩賲賴 讴乇丿賴 丕爻鬲 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
"Not bad, but nothing special," writes an Amazon critic. Yeah. Exactly. For unknown reasons, GRs gush over these short stories, most of which flaunt cliches, banalities and swerves that are predicted from the 2d graph. I revel in short story collections and have many fr diverse authors...Now, Moravia has a rep, most especially from "A Ghost at Noon," retitled "Contempt" by NYRB, after the stunning Godard film. (NYRB has its own commerce to consider). Anyway, I truly looked forward to delving into these tales. Written originally for a newspaper, I believe, these moral tales -- pointing to greed, lust, jealousy and other cringe sins -- tended to put me to sleep, though they only run about 6-7 pages (for that newspaper). Two samples:
"Mario" : a dull plumber in a tiny town hears gossip that his wife is carrying on with another man. (Here, you guess, immediately, Noooooo, Alberto has a trick up his sleeve -- and you're right)...What follows is a yawnfest of the plumber tackling the gossips for more info...Finally he's told that his wife is with the man, right now! He rumbles into his flat and finds wife with > her brother. (He's just been released after 2 years in jail !) ~~ Prego.
"Baby": a poor couple with 6 children learn a 7th is due....the family never has enough to eat. The new baby presents a crisis. What to do? In Catholic Italy, rest assured -- . The couple decide to leave the baby anonymously in a church. Here comes another yawnfest. They trundle around seeking the right church....o woe is me...by the last page, they decide, (Hail Mary!) to keep the baby and, with God's mercy, get on with Life. And 7 children.
Ovo su pri膷e pisana za novine, tako da su sve majstorski sa啪ete na 4-5 strana. Zajedni膷ki su im likovi, sve su to Rimljani, ustvari skup gubitnika, koji poku拧avaju da sastave i pokrenu 啪ivot u godinama nakon 2. svetskog rata. Ne mora da zna膷i da je rat uzrok njihove ispodprose膷nosti; svi oni imaju neki svoj problem i trude se da iza膽u iz ni拧tavila svakodnevnice. Bezuspe拧no.
Ipak, nije to studija dru拧tva, svaka pri膷a je li膷na i ti膷e se pojedinca. U Ne istra啪uj, na primer, lik se u prvom licu pita zbog 膷ega ga je ostavila 啪ena nakon dve godine braka (i o膷igledno je da samo njemu razlozi nisu jasni), u Prijatelji bez novaca 膷ovek iznena膽eno ustanovljava da nema nijednog prijatelja koji bi mu bio spreman pozajmiti novac u nevolji, dok Nesre膰an 膷ovek o膷ajava zbog 膷injenice 拧to jednostavno nema sre膰e u 啪ivotu. Ovo je i jedna od boljih pri膷a, i dosta duhovita, tokom 膷itanja koje 膰e拧 se setiti ljudi iz tvog 啪ivota koji lamentiraju nad sre膰om, iako (ne)sre膰a sa njihovim 啪ivotom nema ba拧 nikakve veze.
Izdanje koje sam 膷itao (Re膷 i misao) ima 16 pri膷a. Prema 欧宝娱乐 i broju strana, rekao bih da postoje i opse啪nija.
I've always said that Alberto Moravia is Italy's greatest 20th-century novelist, and after reading many of his novels, this was my first time seeing as to whether his writing of short fiction was just as good. Safe to say, yes. This was an impressive collection of short stories on various characters in and around post-war Rome. The stories tell of commonplace events mostly concerning Rome's working class, and in each narrator's life, sometimes spanning a day or just a few hours, we get a snapshot into their world of love, loneliness, work, and struggles, to name a few things. Most stories are very short, only lasting about ten pages or so, but it was still enough to be pulled into the world Moravia is depicting. Sometimes bleak, but always believable and engaging, the way he writes of daily human experiences in the city he knew so well is accomplished with ease.
About 100 short stories based in post-WWII Rome, about simple people. All stories are written in the first person from the point of view of a man. Most of them are lighthearted and amusing. In my imagination, while I was reading the book, everything happened in black and white. I鈥檓 still wondering why Moravia loved telling stories about losers. I don鈥檛 think any of these characters鈥� stories have a successful outcome. Unfortunately, Italian literature seems to be in passionate love with losers.
In 1960 the film of Alberto Moravia's great 1958 novel,"Two Women" was released. It was directed by Vittorio de Sica and starred Sophia Loren, two great Italian talents. Sophia won an Oscar for Best Actress for her moving portrayal of a mother caught up with her young teenage daughter in the turmoil of World War Two. But what drew the publicity was the SCANDAL resulting from its condemnation by the Roman Catholic Church. I was a 12 year old Catholic boy at the time, but only caught up with the film as an adult and wondered what ALL THE FUSS had been about. Not that it wasn't obvious upon viewing the movie!! The mother and daughter are repeatedly raped by Allied Moroccan troops in an abandoned church. So the question remains...What part of this scene was objectionable?? As those Gentlemen Of The Vatican seem little disposed to really care about the laity, especially those on the lower echelons,ie. children and women, we can easily dismiss the shocking rapes. But rape in a church??!!Now THERE'S the rub. Now THAT is shocking!!is it not?? Well...no. NO!!!! No, it isn't. But for those funny little celibate brains absolutely obsessed with the finer details of SEX, it is FUCKING shocking!! And to me THIS is the scandal:the Catholic Church IS THE scandal.
This long-held memory made me curious about Moravia, especially when, in 2005, I came across his "Roman Tales" (1954) in a well-worn old Penguin edition of 1959, the year before the release of THAT film. Only $4. Mine!! The twenty-seven stories were a bite-size 6/7 pages each. Contemporary. Sharp. Unpredictable. All told in the first person by a variety of Roman men - a shopkeeper, a taxi driver, a husband, a lover, a student, a nursery gardener, a mechanic, an industrial repairman, a stuttering caretaker, a waiter, a film cameraman and photographer, a barber, the friend of an obsessive eater, an apprentice furniture-maker,a plumber and so on. This is not to say that women do not play prominent and memorable roles in these stories too. These are ordinary people in extraordinary quirky little stories. Moravia has the ability to hold you from the beginning as their situations and their relationships are revealed to you directly by the leading protagonist. This was a feast I look forward to repeating. Hope to see you at the table.
P.S. I searched long and hard for another set of Moravia's short stories, and finally found a 1970 Panther edition of another 27 tales titled "Command and I Will Obey You", taken from one of the stories.( Have no idea whether the Italian original was titled this. Could possibly have just been "More Roman Tales" more likely.) These are totally different in content but about the same types of characters. Here however the situations are decidedly bizarre and surreal. Not offensive in the least. Totally unique.
UPDATE: Doing some research into Moravia to discover the "WHY?" of the Catholic Church's condemnation of the 1960 film of his novel "Two Women.": Seems that in 1952 they had placed All his writings on their Index of Forbidden Books. (This was going one better than Mussolini's Fascist Government which had only censored them.)"Two Women" (1958) had not been written at this stage. Moravia had a Jewish father and I have found one mention of his being a Communist. Moravia wrote largely about the malaise of the bourgeoise using mainly the prism of sex. All these things would have made him a prime target for the Catholic Church's ongoing harrassment being an organization harbouring many prejudices and hatreds. However one article refers to Moravia as "a moralistic writer." It is interesting to note that Hitler's opus magnus "Mein Kampf" never made it onto the Church's Index, which is understandable. Hitler was a Catholic, a rabid anti-Communist( Pope Pius XII rushed into his private chapel to offer up Thanksgiving to god - a Te Deum - when he heard the news that Hitler's armies had attacked Russia!!) and killed every Jew he could lay his hands on. And he didn't seem to be that keen on sex. Makes sense doesn't it.
Ho appena finito di leggere i dodici racconti contenuti nel volume dei Racconti d鈥檃utore del Sole 24 ore. Beh, l鈥檌mmagine che mi 猫 subito balzata alla mente 猫 quella del coatto Enzo che parte in macchina per il viaggio ferragostano in Polonia con l鈥檃mico Sergio nel film Un sacco bello di Carlo Verdone. I protagonisti dei racconti di Moravia somigliano a lui, o a Leo, il goffo ragazzotto trasteverino che si imbatte nella spagnola Marisol, o a Fiorenza, la ragazza romana anche lei 鈥渂urina鈥� fidanzata di Ruggero che insieme a lui ferma le macchine ai semafori per pubblicizzare la 鈥渟piritualit脿鈥� della vita nella comune, tutti protagonisti di Un sacco bello. Verdone sottolinea l鈥檃spetto caricaturale, creando dei tipi eccessivi, che fanno ridere anche se malinconicamente. Moravia , pur scrivendo anche racconti con aspetti comici, sottolinea in particolare la disperazione di questi ragazzotti di borgata disagiati, affannati per sopravvivere ai capricci beffardi del destino. La maggior parte dei racconti mi sono piaciuti, come Non approfondire, La bella serata, Il pensatore, Il delitto perfetto, Scherzi di Ferragosto (quello che pi霉 di tutti mi ha fatto pensare al film di Verdone).
Ho appena finito di leggere i dodici racconti contenuti nel volume dei Racconti d鈥檃utore del Sole 24 ore. Beh, l鈥檌mmagine che mi 猫 subito balzata alla mente 猫 quella del coatto Enzo che parte in macchina per il viaggio ferragostano in Polonia con l鈥檃mico Sergio nel film Un sacco bello di Carlo Verdone. I protagonisti dei racconti di Moravia somigliano a lui, o a Leo, il goffo ragazzotto trasteverino che si imbatte nella spagnola Marisol, o a Fiorenza, la ragazza romana anche lei 鈥渂urina鈥� fidanzata di Ruggero che insieme a lui ferma le macchine ai semafori per pubblicizzare la 鈥渟piritualit脿鈥� della vita nella comune, tutti protagonisti di Un sacco bello. Verdone sottolinea l鈥檃spetto caricaturale, creando dei tipi eccessivi, che fanno ridere anche se malinconicamente. Moravia , pur scrivendo anche racconti con aspetti comici, sottolinea in particolare la disperazione di questi ragazzotti di borgata disagiati, affannati per sopravvivere ai capricci beffardi del destino. La maggior parte dei racconti mi sono piaciuti, come Non approfondire, La bella serata, Il pensatore, Il delitto perfetto, Scherzi di Ferragosto (quello che pi霉 di tutti mi ha fatto pensare al film di Verdone).
Questi racconti catturano perfettamente lo spirito di Roma: l'indolenza, il fatalismo, il disincanto, ma anche l'irriverenza e la sbruffoneria, della serie "c'avemo bona lingua e mejo mano".
I read 鈥淩acconti Romani鈥� by Antonio Moravia while attending middle school in Rome, Italy in the early 80s. Our brilliant teacher, Emilia Zincone, whose husband at the time was a journalist for the authoritative Italian paper 鈥淚l Corriere della Sera鈥�, had met Moravia personally and she really made it come alive in a way that it opened our eyes to a strange but fascinating world of adult emotions and circumstances. What also made it interesting for us was that all the stories were set in our city or its surroundings after World War II. Though we did not live through the experience of war ourselves, all of our parents and grandparents did, and for us as a group it became a sort of quest into our own identity and also a way to better understand them. As we read it and discussed it together in class, quite often you would hear, 鈥淥h, yeah, my dad told me about that鈥� or 鈥淢y grandpa was there when that happened.鈥� Our teacher helped us connect to the book in a way that it made it relatable to us and therefore more interesting. I rediscovered this book as my son was reading it in his high school Italian class and I reread it in English. Though much of its authentic flavor expressed in the Roman dialect is lost, the emotions carried through the vivid description of the characters in all their raw humanity is still there. I loved discussing its content with my son, and I think this book has allowed him to get a glimpse of my childhood spent in a foreign country and to understand me better, much like it helped me relate to my parents鈥� experiences better. For this, and many other reasons, this book will always be very dear to me and I highly recommend it to readers who like realistic tales exposing rather than occulting human nature in its all starkness and vulnerability.
La mia insegnante di lettere del liceo 猫 stata tenace: per farci appassionare alla letteratura ha sviluppato i pi霉 disperati percorsi dal romanzo alla novella. Nel leggere le novelle abbiamo poi spaziato da Verga fino a Moravia; sar脿 per questo che ho aperto questa raccolta curiosa. Fortuna ha voluto che l'abbia richiusa molto soddisfatta! Moravia riesce a descrivere tutta la violenza repressa che pu貌 esserci nelle vite di ciascuno, spiega senza giri di parole perch茅 una persona normale possa cadere nella tentazione di fare qualcosa di ingiustificato senza governare pi霉 le sue emozioni. Storie di tassisti, idraulici, professori tutti accomunati da vite comuni che a tratti culminano nella frustrazione: un bagno di quotidianit脿.
No me cabe duda que Moravia es mi cuentista favorito. Cada peque帽a pero gran historia de este libro, es una verdadera aventura. Me llev贸 mucho tiempo leer el libro completo, porque cada una de las 61 historias est谩n escritas como si fueran una novela. Y aunque son cortas en duraci贸n, su contenido es muy condensado.
Hay autores que pueden decir mucho con pocas palabras y Moravia es uno de ellos. La mayor铆a de estos cuentos tienen los elementos esenciales para poder haber sido una novela completa, pero Moravia quiso condenarlos a ser s贸lo cuentos.
Me gustaron casi todos los cuentos y lo mejor de todo, me envolvieron de la manera en que te envuelve un buen libro.
Short, short stories. Great, great stories. Twenty seven stories over 200 pages, so none of them long but I did not read one bad one. Moravia was an expert in setting the scene and characters within the first few lines of each tale. He really gets you involved and wanting to read more. He sets all the stories in Rome and it鈥檚 environs post World War Two and gives you a wealth of characters, personalities and situations, some dark, serious tales and many more humorous, lighter stories. Really glad I read these and now will try some of his full length novels.
A very enjoyable read... The stories (6 or 7 pages each) are exclusively set in Rome in the 1950s; Moravia never failed to indicate the name of the streets and landmarks where the scenes are set. I was lucky enough to visit the Eternal City recently and was pleased to find that I knew a good number of the places mentioned.
The stories mainly revolve around poverty, women and crime. The multiple protagonists are usually desperate for money, love or happiness. The stories are all told in the first person with the narrator assuming each time a different character, which never strikes as odd.
Even if Moravia was himself considered decadent under Mussolini, there seems to be no underlying ideological purpose in these short stories. These are mainly stories about the people of Rome battling through hard times and dreaming their lives away...
I discovered a great story-teller and a precocious one at that as he happened to write his first novel at age 17! "Gli Indifferenti"