The Woman of Rome

A riveting portrait of a Roman prostitute during the Fascist regime. Moravia has a well developed insight into feminine psychology. What I find most compelling in this novel are the restricted choices women had during the era: wife/mother, maid, seamstress or prostitute. If in desperate need of money, prostitution is the expedient choice in a patriarchal society. Adriana navigates the seedy underworld with grace and to a wonderfully ironic conclusion.

Good novel. You must like Moravia, and you should not mind about happy ends. I enjoyed it, and I will remember it, so I'm doubting between 4 or 5 stars.

Moravia's elegant novel takes the familiar theme of unfulfilled dreams and invests it with quiet strength and descriptive authenticity. Months after reading "Woman in Rome," it is the voice of Adriana, the woman of the title, that lingers in my memory. By telling in the 1st person his story of a young woman whose beauty, poverty, passivity and kindness lead her to prostitution and abandonment, the author shows us how such a fall from hope and grace is a gradual, imperceptible process, one day after the next. Moravia writes in a deceptively simple style that keeps the reader close to his heroine's actions, so that her losses become our own. Near the end of the novel there is an astonishing paragraph, in which the narrator imagines herself drowning. This heartbreaking paragraph encapsulates the downward pull of the entire book, the longing for oblivion in the face of lost dreams. It is too long to quote in full, but here are some excerpts. (Note, too, the beautiful translation.)"I obeyed and he undressed in the dark and got into bed beside me. I turned toward him to embrace him, but he pushed me away wordlessly and curled himself up on the edge of the bed with his back to me. This gesture filled me with bitterness and I, too, hunched myself up, waiting for sleep with a widowed spirit. But I began to think about the sea again and was overcome by the longing to drown myself. I imagined it would only be a moment's suffering, and then my lifeless body would float from wave to wave beneath the sky for ages. [...] At last I would sink to the bottom, would be dragged head downward toward some icy blue current that would carry me along the sea for months and years among submarine rocks, fish, and seaweed, and floods of limpid seawater would wash my forehead, my breast, my belly, my legs, slowly wearing away my flesh, smoothing and refining me continually. And at last some wave, someday, would cast me up on some beach, nothing but a handful of fragile, white bones [...] a little heap of bones, without human shape, among the clean stones of a shore."

It surprises me when I read the previous two reviews. On the contrary, I think this book is one of Moravia's best. The first time I read it, I was stunned, feeling very uncomfortable, because, with his characteristic style clear view about life, a view without any illusion, Moravia pushed me to think about life in a new way.It is not just a usual romantic story of a girl of humble background with a boy from a wealthy family. It is a story of a cruel, inhumane wolrd, its corruptive forces, its lack of meaning and reason, and the people who lived in it, some strived for a meaning, some gave up, some became part of the corruptive force... Yes, it is told through the girl with some clarity of understanding of what happenned to her that may have shamed some people who have got the best education in the world. But, please, what does education have to do with wisdom. I know the intelligence of Adriana has invited criticism, but I would rather believe it.That being said, I love this book. Like most of Moravia's books, love is a question, not a ready, easy answer to the central question of our existence - the meaning of life. Every charactor in the novel brings his/her individual history and existence, in particular, the sutdent and the lover of Adriana, Mino, deserves much respect, understanding, sympathy and affection.Ever since I found the book in the bookstore and bought it home, I return to it from time to time, for the enjoyment of Mr. Moravia's wonderful language, for more understanding, and for people who lived in the book.

The author does have a propensity to "tell" as opposed to "show." That's not my taste so it took a a long time to really get going with this book. But once I got into it, I found it very interesting.I disagree with the "official" review. Adriana understands exactly how she became a prostitute. These are among the most interesting passages of the book and they really establish the different sides of her basically stoic character. We usually think of stoicism and a passive (and unflattering) trait. But Adriana's move toward prostitution, and her way of living that life, show a surprisingly proactive brand of stoicism.As to Giacomo, the student revolutionary ... I'll keep quiet - there's really no way you're going to guess how he fares as the novel unfolds. :-)