The hidden charm of hedonism and more, through the finesse and imagination of the great writer, Alberto Moravia.

"Hedonism does not observe the object as much as its movement, that is, its behavior." Daily life flows painlessly for the thirty-five-year-old Donto, child of the French May, his enigmatic wife Sylvia, and his elderly father, a renowned academic, in a spacious house in the center of Rome. Their complex but "extremely readable" relationships are examined by Donto, who looks at reality with a mechanical detachment, focusing his mind on what is happening and rejecting it with emotion. Thus, this "indifferent" man of the 80s, besieged by love and his perversions, goes from being a spectator of hedonism to becoming an accuser of himself.

Attractive, unforgettable fictional characters with unpredictable desires in one of Alberto Moravia's most distinctive narratives. The book was adapted into a film in 1994 by Tinto Brass.