SOURCE: "The Classicism of Alberto Moravia," in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. III, No. 4, Winter 1957-58, pp. 309-20.

The Proletarian Italian Male in Roman Tales:

Alberto Moravia's Roman Tales is a collection worth reading if only as a salutary de-romanticisation of Roman life. When they appeared as newspaper-pieces they seemed much more lively; in book-form they do not stand up well. In all twenty-seven tales there are not more than two or three worthy to be called short stories. 'The Baby' and 'The Caretaker' are the best. Otherwise the emphasis is too firmly on the obviously bizarre. What I find most interesting about the tales is that they deal with the proletarian Italian male rather than with the middle-class intellectual who is the usual pivotal figure of the novels and is always inferior to his women, balled-up, weak of will, acted-upon, and generally ineffectual. These common folk may be...