Moravia once remarked that the most important facts of his life had been his illness, a tubercular infection of the bones that confined him to a bed for five years andFascism because they both caused him to suffer and do things he otherwise would not have done. "It is what we are forced to do that forms our character, not what we do of our own free will."[4] Moravia was an atheist.[5] His writing was marked by its factual, cold, precise style, often depicting the malaise of thebourgeoisie. It was rooted in the tradition of nineteenth-century narrative, underpinned by high social and cultural awareness.[6] Moravia believed that writers must, if they were to represent ‘a more absolute and complete reality than reality itself’, "assume a moral position, a clearly conceived political, social, and philosophical attitude" but also that, ultimately, "A writer survives in spite of his beliefs".[7] Between 1959 and 1962 Moravia was president ofPEN International, the worldwide association of writers.
In 1925 at the age of 18, he left the sanatorium and moved toBressanone. During the next three years, partly in Bressanone and partly in Rome, he began to write his first novel,Gli indifferenti (Time of Indifference), published in 1929. The novel is a realistic analysis of the moral decadence of a middle-class mother and two of her children. In 1927, Moravia metCorrado Alvaro andMassimo Bontempelli and started his career as a journalist with the magazine900. The journal published his first short stories, includingCortigiana stanca (The Tired Courtesan in French asLassitude de courtisane, 1927),Delitto al circolo del tennis (Crime at the Tennis Club, 1928),Il ladro curioso (The Curious Thief) andApparizione (Apparition, both 1929).
Gli indifferenti was published at his own expense, costing 5,000Italian lira. Literary critics described the novel as a noteworthy example of contemporary Italian narrative fiction.[9] The next year, Moravia started collaborating with the newspaperLa Stampa, then edited by authorCurzio Malaparte. In 1933, together with Mario Pannunzio, he founded the literary review magazinesCaratteri (Characters) andOggi (Today) and started writing for the newspaperGazzetta del Popolo. The years leading to World War II were difficult for Moravia as an author; theFascist regime prohibited reviews ofLe ambizioni sbagliate (1935), seized his novelLa mascherata (Masquerade, 1941) and bannedAgostino (Two Adolescents, 1941). In 1935 he travelled to the United States to give a lecture series onItalian literature.L'imbroglio (The Cheat) was published byBompiani in 1937. To avoid Fascist censorship, Moravia wrote mainly in the surrealist andallegoric styles; among the works isIl sogno del pigro (The Dream of the Lazy). The Fascist seizure of the second edition ofLa mascherata in 1941, forced him to write under a pseudonym. That same year, he married the novelistElsa Morante, whom he had met in 1936. They lived inCapri, where he wroteAgostino. After theArmistice of 8 September 1943, Moravia and Morante took refuge inFondi, on the border ofprovince of Frosinone, a region to which fascism had arbitrarily imposed the name "ciociaria"; the experience inspiredLa ciociara (1957) (Two Woman, 1958).
In May 1944, after the liberation of Rome, Alberto Moravia returned. He began collaborating with Corrado Alvaro, writing for important newspapers such asIl Mondo andIl Corriere della Sera, the latter publishing his writing until his death. After the war, his popularity steadily increased, with works such asLa Romana (The Woman of Rome, 1947),La Disubbidienza (Disobedience, 1948),L'amore coniugale e altri racconti (Conjugal Love and other stories, 1949) andIl conformista (The Conformist, 1951). In 1952 he won thePremio Strega forI Racconti and his novels began to be translated abroad andLa Provinciale was adapted to film byMario Soldati; in 1954Luigi Zampa directedLa Romana and in 1955 Gianni Franciolini directedI Racconti Romani (The Roman Stories, 1954) a short collection that won the Marzotto Award. In 1953, Moravia founded the literary magazineNuovi Argomenti (New Arguments), which featuredPier Paolo Pasolini among its editors. In the 1950s, he wrote prefaces to works such asBelli's100 Sonnets,Brancati'sPaolo il Caldo andStendhal'sRoman Walks. From 1957, he also reviewed and criticised cinema for the weekly magazinesL'Europeo andL'Espresso. His criticism is collected in the volumeAl Cinema (At the Cinema, 1975).
In 1960, Moravia publishedLa noia (Boredom orThe Empty Canvas), the story of the troubled sexual relationship between a young, rich painter striving to find sense in his life and an easygoing girl in Rome. It became one of his most famous novels, and won theViareggio Prize.An adaptation was filmed byDamiano Damiani in 1962. Another adaptation of the book is the basis ofCédric Kahn's filmL'Ennui (1998). Several films were based on his other novels: in 1960,Vittorio De Sica adaptedLa ciociara (Two Women), starringSophia Loren; in 1963,Jean-Luc Godard filmedIl disprezzo (Contempt); and in 1964,Francesco Maselli filmedGli indifferenti (Time of Indifference). In 1962, Moravia and Elsa Morante parted, despite never divorcing. He went to live with the young writerDacia Maraini and concentrated on theatre. In 1966, he, Maraini andEnzo Siciliano foundedIl porcospino, which staged works by Moravia, Maraini,Carlo Emilio Gadda and others.
In 1967 Moravia visited China, Japan andKorea. In 1971 he published the novelIo e lui (I and He orThe Two of Us) about a screenwriter, his independent penis and the situations to which he thrusts them and the essayPoesia e romanzo (Poetry and Novel). In 1972 he went to Africa, which inspired his workA quale tribù appartieni? (Which Tribe Do You Belong To?), published in the same year. His 1982 trip to Japan, including a visit toHiroshima, inspired a series of articles forL'Espresso magazine about theatomic bomb. The same theme is in the novelL'uomo che guarda (The Man Who Looks, 1985) and the essayL'inverno nucleare (The Nuclear Winter), including interviews with some contemporary principal scientists and politicians.
The short story collection,La Cosa e altri racconti (The Thing and Other Stories), was dedicated to Carmen Llera, his new companion (forty-five years his junior), whom he married in 1986, after Morante's death in November 1985. In 1984, Moravia was elected to theEuropean Parliament as a member of theItalian Communist Party. His experiences atStrasbourg, which ended in 1988, are recounted inIl diario europeo (The European Diary). In 1985 he won the title of European Personality. Moravia was a perennial contender for theNobel Prize in Literature, having been nominated 13 times between 1949 and 1965.[10] In September 1990, Alberto Moravia was found dead in the bathroom of hisLungotevere apartment, in Rome. In that year, Bompiani published his autobiography,Vita di Moravia (Life of Moravia).
Moral aridity, the hypocrisy of contemporary life and the inability of people to find happiness in traditional ways such as love and marriage are the regnant themes in the works of Alberto Moravia. Usually, these conditions are pathologically typical of middle-class life; marriage is the target of works such asDisobedience andL'amore coniugale (Conjugal Love, 1947). Alienation is the theme in works such asIl disprezzo (Contempt orA Ghost at Noon, 1954) andLa noia (The Empty Canvas) from the 1950s, despite observation from a rational-realistic perspective. Political themes are often present; an example isLa Romana (The Woman of Rome, 1947), the story of a prostitute entangled with the Fascist regime and with a network of conspirators. The extreme sexual realism inLa noia (The Empty Canvas, 1960) introduced the psychologically experimental works of the 1970s.
Moravia's writing style was highly regarded for being extremely stark and unadorned, characterised by elementary, common words in an elaborate syntax. A complex mood is established by mixing a proposition constituting the description of a single psychological observation mixed with another such proposition. In the later novels, the inner monologue is prominent.
Il conformista (1951), novel (The Conformist, trans. Angus Davidson (1952), Tami Calliope (1999))
I racconti, 1927–1951 (1952), short stories (first selection, made in consultation with Moravia:Bitter Honeymoon and Other Stories, trans.Frances Frenaye, Baptista Gilliat Smith and Bernard Wall (1954); supplementary selection:The Wayward Wife and Other Stories, trans. Angus Davidson (1960); the two English selections present sixteen of the twenty-four stories in the Italian original)
Racconti romani (1954), short stories (selection:Roman Tales, trans. Angus Davidson (1954))
Il disprezzo (1954), novel (A Ghost at Noon (original) orContempt (to align withthe film), trans. Angus Davidson (1954))
La ciociara (1957), novel (Two Women, trans. Angus Davidson (1958))
Beatrice Cenci (1958), play (Beatrice Cenci, trans. Angus Davidson (1965))
Nuovi racconti romani (1959), short stories (selection:More Roman Tales, trans. Angus Davidson (1963))
La noia (1960), novel (The Empty Canvas (original) orBoredom (reissue), trans. Angus Davidson (1961))
L'automa (1962), short stories (The Fetish, trans. Angus Davidson (1964))
L'uomo come fine e altri saggi (1964), essays (Man as an End: A Defense of Humanism: Literary, Social and Political Essays, trans. Bernard Wall (1965))
L'attenzione (1965), novel (The Lie, trans. Angus Davidson (1966))
Una cosa è una cosa (1967), short stories (Command, and I Will Obey You, trans. Angus Davidson (1969))
La rivoluzione culturale in Cina. Ovvero il Convitato di pietra (1967), essay (The Red Book and the Great Wall: An Impression of Mao's China, trans. Ronald Strom (1968))
Il dio Kurt (1969), play
La vita è gioco (1969), play
Il paradiso (1970), short stories (Paradise and Other Stories (UK) orBought and Sold (U.S.), trans. Angus Davidson (1971))
Io e lui (1971), novel (The Two of Us (UK) orTwo: A Phallic Novel (U.S.), trans. Angus Davidson (1972))
A quale tribù appartieni (1972), essays (Which Tribe Do You Belong To?, trans. Angus Davidson (1974)), "collection of articles from 10 years' junketing in Africa"[11]
Un'altra vita (1973), short stories (Lady Godiva and Other Stories (original) orMother Love (reissue), trans. Angus Davidson (1975))
Al cinema (1975), essays
Boh (1976), short stories (The Voice of the Sea and Other Stories, trans. Angus Davidson (1978))
La vita interiore (1978), novel (Time of Desecration, trans. Angus Davidson (1980))[12]
^Accrocca, E.F.Roma allo specchio nella narrativa Italiano da De Amicis al primo Moravia, Istituto Storia Romana, Rome 1958. Reprinted in Giuliano Dego, Moravia (Writers and Critics Series), Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1966, page 3, ASIN B0000CN5PF.
