Two Friends Read Free Page A

respected the work of Zola and Verga in this regard, his inclination was not naturalistic but was founded on the interior reality and contradictions of the individual.
Two Friends
represents a heuristic key to understanding this phase of Moravia’s fiction; it is a phase when the Roman author is still committed to the working-class myth seen in
La romana
and
I racconti romani
(which will conclude with the publication of
La ciociara
) and yet has adopted a first-person narrator and inserted ample discussions of political ideas into the text, anticipating the Moravian essay-novel of the 1960s.
    T HOMAS E. P ETERSON
    1 A. Moravia,
Man as an End: A Defense of Humanism
, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965), 133.
    2 A. Moravia,
La speranza, ossia Cristianesimo e Comunismo
(Rome: Documento, 1944), 38.
    3 A. Moravia,
Man as an End
, 127.
    4 Alberto Moravia,
I due amici. Frammenti di una storia fra guerra e dopoguerra
, introd. and ed. Simone Casini (Milan: Bompiani, 2007).
    5 The
Leggi razziali
denied Italian citizenship to Jews and prohibited them from positions in the government or in the professions of education and banking. Marriages between Italian citizens and Jews were banned.
    6 A. Moravia and A. Elkann,
Vita di Moravia
(Milan: Bompiani, 1990), 271.
    7 W. Benjamin,
Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings
, introd. and ed. P. Demetz, trans. E. Jephcott (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), 73.

E DITOR ’ S N OTE
    The numbers that appear in the margins indicate the numeration of the original typewritten pages in the so-called Dossier Number 6 [“Incartamento 6”] at the Fondo Alberto Moravia. The few that come from Dossier Number 4 are indicated with an asterisk.
    The marking “[…]” indicates a break in the text; “<…>” indicates an addition.
    The marking < in the right margin indicates the existence of an alternate version of the text, to be found in the appendix.

TWO FRIENDS
    Fragments of a Story Set During the War   
and the Postwar Years

Version A
[I]
    […] The woman, a widow, lived alone in her tiny apartment.
    231
    Maurizio usually went to s her in the evenings. During the day he kept his old habits and often s Sergio. The woman, who was jealous and did not completely trust Maurizio, often subtly reproached him about his friendship with Sergio. She was a conventional woman; in her eyes, poverty was the worst possible defect a person could have. In her opinion, Maurizio, who was so much wealthier than Sergio, should associate only with his equals. Moreover, she believed that Sergio was not a true friend and attached himself to Maurizio only because of his wealth. How could Maurizio not see this? And on, and on. The woman, who was German by birth, concealed her hostility toward Sergio; in fact, she always affected a sickeningly sweet manner in his presence. But she often said to Maurizio: “I’m sure that if I made eyes at your dear friend, he would not think twice about betraying you.” Though Maurizio was convinced that this was not true, and was sure of Sergio’s loyalty, he did not vigorously protest, because, deep down, these insinuations were convenient to him. It was almost as if he thought that through this […].
    The woman felt that she had heard enough, and
    162
    she sent Sergio away, with the pretext that Maurizio was so late already that he would probably not come at all.
    That same evening, when Sergio was having dinner with his family, Maurizio called. Sergio came tothe phone, thinking that his friend wanted to make an appointment for the next day. But instead, Maurizio said: “What did you say to Emilia? What ideas have you gotten into your head?” He sounded irritated, but there was something else as well. Sergio thought he heard contempt in his voice. He answered vehemently: “Nothing that wasn’t true.” At the other end of the line, Maurizio’s voice pressed on, more violently: “Indiscreet and voluble as