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"Contempt by Alberto Moravia

Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

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- What a magnificent novel!
- And yet how worried I was at the start.

To begin with, the account appeared to be too introspective and limited to the two people most engaged in this tale:
Ricardo Molteni and his wife Emilia.

But it is a seducing, absorbing and marvelous story.
Ricardo Molteni is a writer and he wants to create for the theater.
Now that I have read a few lines on the internet about Alberto Moravia I can see that Molteni is based on the author.

The works of the author have been adapted on screen:
Two Women, The Conformist and Le Mepris are rather famous and acclaimed films.

Ricardo Molteni does not have an income sufficient to provide for his wife and offer a comfortable apartment and modern facilities.

Therefore he is forced to write for the film industry and he dislikes that.
He does it because he loves Emilia and he knows how important a home, a hearth is for her.

He starts working for a producer whose name is Battista.
The employees call him The Ape because he has something of a wild animal, with a virility, an energy and something from a violent, aggressive brute that justifies somewhat the nicknames.

It is odd that when invited for a meal out, Ricardo accepts the idea of his producer to let his wife drive ahead with him to his house, where they are both invited.
Indeed, Battista has a car that can only seat two, but I sensed there is something wrong here.

Indeed, after some weeks we descend into a sort of hell, where the hero contemplates his downfall.

First, Emilia declares that he does not love him anymore and then the Contempt from the title refers to what she feels for husband.

She says to him:

- " you are not a man"

Il disprezzo ...

Enters the stage the last important personage, a German film director named Rheingold.
He is supposed to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, for which Ricardo Molteni would write the script.

The German's vision explains to a degree what happened between Molteni and his wife...

Ulysses is not happy with his life in Ithaca and the war is the pretext he needs to escape.
There are suitors interested in Penelope that he does not discourage, even before going to fight, which he did not need to do.
On the way back, he takes so many years because he does not want to get back and engages in all possible philandering.
Penelope in her turn does not accept any proposals on account of her pride and loyalty not because she is head over heels with her long gone spouse.
And to end this intriguing perspective, Ulysses kills the suitors to make a point and prove he is a man.
Ulysses is the modern, civilized man whereas Penelope represents barbarity, primitivism.

Battista plays the role of the suitors and Molteni aka Ulysses allows him to get too close to his wife, who is Penelope in this version and she despises this lack of manhood.

Fabulous, stupendous, divine work"