Contempt (New York Review Books Classics)

Contempt is a brilliant and unsettling work by one of the revolutionary masters of modern European literature. All the qualities for which Alberto Moravia is justly famous--his cool clarity of expression, his ex acting attention to psychological complexity and social pretension, his still-striki ng openness about sex--are evident in this story of a failing marriage. Contempt (wh ich was to inspire Jean-Luc Godard's no-less-celebrated film) is an unflinching exam ination of desperation and self-deception in the emotional vacuum of modern consumer society.

Molteni, the narrator, aspires to be a man of letters, but has taken a job as a screenwriter in order to support his beautiful wife, Emilia. Frustrated by his work, he becomes convinced that she no longer loves him--that in fact she despises him--and a s he relentlessly interrogates her about the true nature of her feelings, he makes h is deepest fear (or secret desire) come true.

Alberto Moravia (1907–1990) was one of Italy’s greatest twentieth-century writers. Among his best-known books to have appeared in English are Boredom, The Woman of Rome, The Conformist (the basis for Bernardo Bertolucci’s film), Roman Tales, Contempt (the basis for Jean-Luc Godard’s film), and Two Women.

Tim Parks, a novelist, essayist, and translator, is Associate Professor of Literature and Translation at IULM University in Milan. His books include Teach Us to Sit Still: A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing and The Server.