Book Synopsis: With sly malice, and an unerring eye for the comic inadequacies of human nature, Alberto Moravia relates the adventures of a scheming coterie who get involved in high intrigue in the exotic and fascist stated of Ruritania.
A fancy dress party takes place at the estate of the wealthy, raddled Duchess of Gorina. The group included Tereso, the Dictator; Fausta, the woman he wants to make his mistress; Fausta's two lovers, one of them a golf caddie; and agent provocateur; a half-witted revolutionary; police spies and a mixed assortment of guests and servants.
This story of intrigue and attempted assassination begins with the air of a comic opera, but moves with increasing momentum to a macabre and unsettling climax. Moravia's characters are vivid and highly individual, the woman uniformly lascivious. They are described with a dry economy of phrases and a ruthless eye for the weakness and depravities of human character. The result -- Ruritania and bitters -- is a delectable naughty political satire, a sharp-witted entertainment with serious political undertones.
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