Viareggio Prize (Premio Viareggio / Premio Letterario Viareggio-Rèpaci)
Boredom (New York Review Books Classics)
Moravia's novel is read as a psychological drama in which the young painter Dino is caught between boredom, class consciousness, and desire. Wealth and sexual relationships fail to fill the void, and the widening gap between self and reality is traced with sharp precision.
Work Information
The harder Dino tries to escape boredom, the more directly he is forced to confront his emptiness.
Moravia's La noia follows the young painter Dino as he drifts through a modern life shaped by boredom, desire, and class tension. Each attempt to fill the void only deepens the gap between him and the world around him, until that tension turns into open crisis.
Review Summaries
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Many readers praise the precise psychological portrait and restrained prose. The protagonist's sense of confinement is memorable, though some find the detached tone deliberately demanding.
Book Information
- Publisher
- NYRB Classics
- Published
- 2004-07-31
- Pages
- 336 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.6 x 1.9 x 20.3 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781590171219
- ISBN-10
- 1590171217
- Price
- 3532 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Mystery & Thrillers/Thrillers/Psychological & Suspense
The novels that the great Italian writer Alberto Moravia wrote in the years following the World War II represent an extraordinary survey of the range of human behavior in a fragmented modern society. Boredom , the story of a failed artist and pampered son of a rich family who becomes dangerously attached to a young model, examines the complex relations between money, sex, and imperiled masculinity. This powerful and disturbing study in the pathology of modern life is one of the masterworks of a writer whom as Anthony Burgess once remarked, was "always trying to get to the bottom of the human imbroglio."
Alberto Moravia (1907-1990), the child of a wealthy family, was raised at home because of illness. He published his first novel, The Time of Indifference, at the age of twenty-three. Banned from publishing under Mussolini, he emerged after World War II as one of the most admired and influential twentieth-century Italian 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. William Weaver is celebrated for his numerous translations from the Italian, including Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and novels and stories by Italo Calvino.
Reviews
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5 star but with reservations
"Boredom" is interesting in the same way all Moravia books are: first person narratives that are intensely reflective, somewhat unreliable, usually in denial or self deluding and obsessed somehow with the recognition, adulation, love or approval of others. In this case a painter of no consequence gradually develops an unhealthy obsession with a young woman that accelerates as his desire grows. Overlapping Dino's sex life and emotional dislocation is a second story of his bourgeois hypocrisy where he pretends to be a down and out painter solely dedicated to his craft, repeatedly evoking his hatred for money and wealth. And yet Dino describes the threadbare homes and clothes of those he comes in contact with the distain and a vertigo inducing look straight down on those who live as they do without choice. Moravia weaves these contradictions so effortlessly that a reader may just accept them until it becomes obvious that our narrator may not be the clear thinking objective person that we first encounter. From that point for me the story grew increasingly interesting as I began to wonder a bit more of what was going on around Dino that we were not seeing and contemplated a bit more about Cecilia, his obsession and the very complex relationship with his mother that's hinted at but left unresolved. This is my fourth Moravia novel after "Contempt (1954)", "The Woman of Rome (1947") and "The Conformist (1947)". I have liked them all. Moravia has very specific characters that he likes to explore and try to understand their unhappiness and obsessions. Even more than "The Woman of Rome" which is a first person narrative of a woman slipping into prostitution this one has a lot sex. Perhaps not the level of detail that saturate more current novels but far more than the typical novel. It's for that reason that I have a bit of a reservation about the 5 stars as the theme is a bit relentless. But as an original and provocative character study is was well worth my time.
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Bought as a gift
Was so fast and easy to read.
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Prized possession
Got the book in excellent condition. It's paper quality it amazing for the price and lives up to the expectations. The story is unique and engaging. It is something a book lover would want on his or her shelf.
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A very interesting book!
AN amazing read. Was very interesting to get inside the thoughts of a man regarding women and the power play between the sexes. Moravia is an amazing writer to be able to write about a man who does nothing all day but think. I highly recommend this as a very different genre for those who have read a lot of books and want to read an original book with a theme like no other!
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Boredom
Good condition