Reviews

Conjugal Love by Alberto Moravia

maschakova's review

3.0

Silvio tries to be a good husband & a good writer. So that he can finally finish his novel w/o distractions he convinces his wife to abstain from sexual intercourse. Then a crisis hits their marriage.

fareedha's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

musubi_mumma's review

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

thelyingbitch's review against another edition

challenging informative relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

dronetone's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

gef's review

3.0

In his villa in Tuscany in October 1937, Silvio — a rich dilettante who dreams of becoming a famous writer — decides that his most important story, perhaps his only story, is his intense, unlimited love for his wife Leda. He admires her affectionate nature, her obedience to his whims, and what he insists is her great beauty — although he notes that her nose is too long and she has other imperfections, besides not being, in his view, especially bright. But her lack of wit and culture — which he tries to remedy by reading poetry to her — is more than compensated by her erotic experience, with her first husband and other previous lovers. This history makes her more exciting to Silvio, who observes Leda only to the extent that her behavior, in bed or at the dinner table, affects his own sensual comfort. So unobservant is he that he doesn't even notice what every reader suspects from the earliest hint, that she is about to have an adventure with the most un-Silvio man in sight, the swarthy, hairy, balding Sicilian barber that Silvio has hired to shave him every morning. We never see Leda except through Silvio's eyes, but even with such limited vision, we glimpse a bolder personality. In the end, though Silvio discovers her adventure, he finds it easier to deny it, and thus commits this book-length declaration of conjugal love which may deceive only himself. The novel is an amusing intrigue, as much for what it says about the hesitations and delusions of a beginning writer as for its erotic escapade.

epictetsocrate's review against another edition

4.0

Ținând caietul în mîini, m-am apropiat de fereastră şi l-am răsfoit mecanic: mi-au venit lacrimi în ochi, nu ştiam dacă de bucurie sau din cauza epuizării după munca terminată. în acel mănunchi de foi, n-am putut să nu mă gîndesc, se adunase ce era mai bun în viaţa mea, pentru care de-acum înainte mi s-ar fi părut că merita în continuare să trăiesc. Răsfoiam foarte încet hîrtiile contemplîndu-le, cu vederea înceţoşată, şi simţeam cum îmi picură lacrimile pe mâini. Apoi l-am văzut pe Antonio traversând pe bicicletă esplanada, am pus rapid caietul pe birou şi mi-am şters ochii.
Mai tîrziu, după ce a plecat Antonio, am trecut în dormitorul meu şi, îmbrăcîndu-mă, am început, ca de obicei, să mă gîndesc la munca deja făcută. Pînă atunci nu mă gândeam decât la paginile scrise în fiecare dimineaţă, dar în acea zi, pentru prima dată, am contemplat şi am mângâiat cu memoria întreaga poveste, de la început pînă la sfîrşit.