A short life of the author
Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) — born Alberto Pincherle on 28 November 1907 in Rome — was the most widely read Italian novelist of his era. He contracted tuberculosis as a child and spent years in sanatoria, where he educated himself through voracious reading. He published his first novel at twenty-two.
Life and Career
The Time of Indifference (Gli indifferenti, 1929) — a savagely cold portrait of a Roman bourgeois family’s moral bankruptcy — was published when Moravia was twenty-two and caused a sensation. It is one of the earliest and most powerful examples of existentialist fiction in European literature.
The Conformist (Il conformista, 1951) — about a man who becomes a Fascist agent out of a pathological desire to be normal — was adapted into Bernardo Bertolucci’s film of the same name (1970), one of the masterpieces of European cinema. Contempt (Il disprezzo, 1954) — about a screenwriter whose marriage collapses during the production of a film — was adapted by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris (1963).
Two Women (La ciociara, 1957) — about a mother and daughter fleeing Rome during the Allied liberation — was adapted by Vittorio De Sica, with Sophia Loren winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Major Works and Themes
Moravia wrote about the Italian bourgeoisie — their boredom, their sexual frustrations, their moral compromises, their relationship to Fascism and its legacy. His style is direct, analytical, and unsentimental. He is closer to Stendhal than to the Italian narrative tradition.
Key Works
- The Time of Indifference (1929)
- The Conformist (1951)
- Contempt (1954)
- Boredom (1960)
- Two Women (1957)
Collecting Moravia
Italian first editions (Bompiani) are the primary collected form. English translations (Farrar, Straus; Secker & Warburg) bring $20–$80 for first editions. Moravia signed at events in Italy. He died in 1990.