Contempt, Boredom, and Moravia at 100

Thanks to the ever-informative Literary Saloon at The Complete Review, we discovered that today is the centenary of Alberto Moravia's birth. The two Moravia books NYRB Classics publishes were among the very first books released in the series, and they were certainly two of the earliest books we knew we wanted to publish. In fact, it's fair to say that the complete unavailability of books by Moravia provided the impetus for the series: in compiling the second edition of The Reader's Catalog, the assembled experts repeatedly penciled-in various Moravias (impossible to have a list of the best Italian novels of the 20th century without including them!). But that catalog was only meant for works in print, thus no Moravias allowed.

For a taste of Moravia, here is an excerpt from Boredom concerning the hero's birthday celebration:

One day, not long after I had given up painting, I went to my mother’s house for the usual weekly luncheon. Actually it was rather a special luncheon; that day was my birthday, and my mother, in case I had forgotten this, had reminded me of it that same morning, giving me her good wishes by telephone in her strangely official and ceremonious manner: “Today you reach the age of thirty-five. I convey to you my sincere good wishes for your happiness and success.” She informed me at the same time that she had prepared a “surprise” for me.
    And so, about midday, I got into my old, dilapidated car and went off across the town with the usual feeling of uneasiness and repugnance that seemed to increase steadily as I drew nearer my goal. My heart more and more heavily oppressed with a weight of anguish, I at last turned into the Via Appia between the cypresses and pines and brick ruins which line its grassy banks. The gateway to my mother’s house was on the right, halfway along the Via Appia, and I looked out for it, half hoping, as usual, that by some miracle I should find it was no longer there, so that I could go straight on to the Castelli and then go back to Rome and return to my studio. However, there the gate was, thrown wide open especially for me, one might have thought, so as to stop me as I passed and swallow me up. I slowed down, turned sharply, and with a gentle, noiseless lurch entered the graveled drive, between two rows of cypresses. The drive rose gradually toward the villa, which could be seen at its far end; and as I looked at the small black cypresses with their dusty, curled foliage, and at the low, red house crouching beneath a sky full of fluffy gray clouds like lumps of dirty cotton wool, I was again conscious of the horror and consternation that assailed me each time I went to see my mother. It was a horror such as might be felt by a man who is preparing to commit an unnatural act; it was almost as though, as I turned into the drive, I were actually re-entering the womb that had given me birth. I sought to rid myself of this disagreeable feeling of retrogression by sounding my horn to announce my arrival. Then, after making a half circle on the gravel in front of the house, I stopped the car and jumped out. Almost immediately the glass door on the ground floor opened and a maid appeared on the doorstep.

 

The blog (in Italian) of the Moravia Centennial [link] put together by the Fondo Alberto Moravia [link]

The Paris Review interview with Moravia from 1954 [link]

Comments

[Damion Searls]

John -- I'm afraid that the product_id gives an alphabetical listing (at least within certain time ranges), judging by the first three: Alfred and Guinevere, Anatomy of Melancholy, Boredom, ... But you can go to the website, look at all NYRB Classics with "Most recent first", and then go to the end of the list. Or judge roughly by looking in the backs of the books and seeing how long the list of other books in the series is. (Yes, I've done this too.)

By the way, "Alfred and Guinevere" is one of the great books they've done and you should definitely check it out. Schuyler is a beautiful poet as well ("The Morning of the Poem" or "Collected Poems" good places to start).

[John Self]

Sold! I've been wondering since I became addicted to the NYRB series what the first books published were. I was about to ask you, but instead why don't I just click the URL provided for Moravia's Boredom and replace "product_id=3" with "product_id=1"...?

(One URL-typing later)

...James Schuyler eh? Never heard of him! But then I suppose that's the point...