2010/2

Alberto Moravia: The Conformist (376p. in the first American print)

A book in translation has in essence been written twice. Based upon the quality and flow of this English translation (by a certain Angus Davisdon), I can only wonder how good the Italian original must be – Il Conformista (1947).

My second by this Italian master (I also read his ‘De Onverschilligen’ – ‘Gli Indifferenti’ – ‘Time of Indifference’), an outstanding one, with a marked existential ring.

“He realized now, with perfect clarity, that he had, as they say, backed the wrong horse [Note: Mussolini]; but why he had backed it in that way, and why the horse had not won – this, apart from the most obviously established facts, was not clear to him. He would have like to be certain that all that had happened had had to happen; that, in fact, he could not have backed any other horse nor arrived at any different result: and he had a greater need of this certainty than of any liberation from a remorse that he did not feel. For him, the only remorse possible was for his mistake – that is, for having done what he had done without any absolute and fatal necessity. For having, in fact – either deliberately or involuntary – ignored the possibility of doing things that were entirely different. But if he could have the certainty that this was not true – well, then it seemed to him that he could be at peace with himself, even if only in his usual dim, colorless manner. In other words, he thought, he must be sure of having recognized his own destiny and of having accepted it as it was, as a thing useful to others and to himself perhaps in a merely negative way, but useful nevertheless.”