Product Description

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 Emilia no longer loves him - that in fact she despises him - and as he relentlessly interrogates her about the true nature of her feelings, he makes his deepest fear (or secret desire) come true. Contempt is a picture, frightening in its familiarity, of how, in an irremediable instant, love can turn to hate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275734 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-31
• Released on: 2004-07-31
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Library Journal
Moravia is red hot! In the past year, roughly half a dozen of his books have been reprinted by numerous publishers. In addition to being highly acclaimed novels, both these titles were the basis of popular European films.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Rich in substance and resonant with meaning...a rare achievement. -- The New York Times

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

Customer Reviews

Faustian Bargain and the Unreliable Narrator
After a second reading of Contempt, I feel compelled to call the short, tautly written novel a masterpiece. Told from the perspective of a neurotic egotist, the narrator accounts how he "sacrificed" his literary writing career to debase himself in the tawdry task of writing screenplays so that he can afford to lavish his wife with a bigger more opulent living quarters. The narrator convinces himself that not only does his wife not appreciate his "sacrifice," but that she no longer loves him. It's horrifying to read this narcissist's account of his marital disintegration because you begin to realize that he is projecting his own lack of love toward his wife (a pefectly fine, loving woman) and you realize that he is so emotionally arrested that he is incapable of loving anyone. Further, a close reading reveals that the narrator never sacrificed his writing career for his wife's opulent tastes, but rather is debasng his writing talents for his own greedy materialistic acquistion.

Many see Moravia's novel as the quintessential example of "modernism," the movement that emphasizes the human limitation for self-understanding and the understanding of others. Also, the novel explores Freudian themes of projection, paranoia, and the powers of the unconscious.

The novel is fast-paced save for a few chapters where the writer and director indulge in long-winded discussions about the mythical exposition of their film but overall the novel is a real page-turner full of suspense and psychological realism.

If you enjoy this suspensful novel told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, I recommend Asylum by Patrick McGrath, Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, and The Horned Man by James Lasdun.

Moravia At His Creative Peak
Finally, someone had the common decency to reprint Moravia in translation. And they also picked the best titles. Il Disprezzo (The Contempt) is the best, most honest, unflinching look at the disintegration of a relationship that I have ever read. Last released in the States in the 1950's under the title A Ghost at Noon, this is the same excellent translation by Angus Davidson, who translated almost all of the authors works up until his death in 1990. If you've ever experienced the conclusion of a long-term relationship and for some masochistic reason want to remember what it was like, this is the book for you. I guess that's not a ringing endorsement. But trust me, Moravia's penchant for psychological details is so devastatingly on-point, you'll find yourself nodding nauseatingly at the pathetic delusions and convoluted rationalizations taking place between the couple. It should be noted that this isn't the book's only focus. Quite uncharacteristically, Moravia tackles popular culture and the highbrow-lowbrow dichotomy in a darkly humorous fashion. I haven't seen Godard's film adaptation but I understand that it is an incredible achievement in itself.

A modern version of an old myth
A theatre writer, Riccardo Molteni, cannot write anymore because his wife, Emilia, does not love him anymore. Moreover, she despises him, all of a sudden.

The search for the reasons which led to this sudden change of feelings, makes Moravia rewrite a modern versin of Ulyse's myth. In a few words, Penelope did not love Ulyse anymore, though she remained faithful to him even before he left for Troja. Why did she not love him? Because the king's behaviour was not masculine enough towards her admirers at the court.
Therefore, Ulyse wins his wife's contempt and consequently leaves for Troja to free himself in a way. After the war, he postpones sine die his return to Ithaca, obessed by the same thing: Penelope's contempt.

When he finally decides to go back home, he knows he has no other solution but to violently kill all Penelope's admirers, in order to get her admiration and love.

And this is how Homer can be well combined with Freud. The moravian style, vivid and direct, manifests itself in this novel, keeping alive the pleasure of your reading.

I think Alberto Moravia is one of the greatest Italian writers of all times. All his novels deal with important issues our society has to face, problems we all have. Many of us will recognize ourselves in his characters.

It will be a very challenging reading that will make you ask a lot of questions about yourself and your life. Enjoy it!