num_pages: 251
description: 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 exacting attention to psychological complexity and social pretension, his still-striking openness about sex—are evident in this story of a failing marriage. Contempt (which was to inspire Jean-Luc Godard’s no-less-celebrated film) is an unflinching examination of desperation and self-deception in the emotional vacuum of modern consumer society.
language: English
title: Contempt
titlecomplete: Contempt
characters: Ricarrdo Molteni, Emilia Molteni
genres: 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Italian Literature, Psychology, Italy, Classics, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 4933
places: Rome, Capri
publisher: NYRB Classics