Moravia, Alberto (älbĕr`tō mōrä`vyä), 1907–90, Italian novelist born as Alberto Pincherle; husband of Elsa Morante Morante, Elsa (ĕl`sə môrän`tā), 1918–85, Italian novelist and poet; wife of Alberto Moravia .
..... Click the link for more information. . Moravia is considered one of the foremost 20th-century Italian novelists. He employs taut prose in realist narratives that shed light on such disturbing issues as the relation of the individual to society. His first novel, The Indifferent Ones (1929, tr. 1932), is a powerful and pitiless portrayal of the Italian bourgeoisie at the beginning of fascism. Novels such as The Empty Canvas (1960, tr. 1961) grimly depict the conflict and interaction between the creative and the sensual, while the underlying theme is the apathy and despair of modern people. Moravia's characters have lost faith in the values on which moral foundations are based. Two Women (1957, tr. 1958), a compelling story of wartime flight, was superbly filmed in 1961. His other works include Disobedience (1948, tr. 1950), The Conformist (1951), Two: A Phallic Novel (tr. 1972), the short-story collection Bought and Sold (1970, tr. 1973), and the essay collection Which Tribe Do You Belong To? (tr. 1974).

Bibliography

See biography by J. Cottrell (1974); studies by L. Rebay (1970) and J. Ross and D. Freed (1972).

Moravia, Alberto

orig. Alberto Pincherle

(born Nov. 28, 1907, Rome, Italy—died Sept. 26, 1990, Rome) Italian journalist, novelist, and short-story writer. He worked as a journalist in Turin and as a foreign correspondent in London. Time of Indifference (1929), his first novel, is a scathing study of middle-class moral corruption. His works were censored by Benito Mussolini's fascists and placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum. Later important novels, many of them portrayals of social alienation and loveless sexuality, include The Conformist (1951; film, 1971), Two Women (1957; film, 1961), and The Empty Canvas (1960). His books of short stories include Roman Tales (1954) and More Roman Tales (1959). He was married to the writer Elsa Morante (1918–85).