Roman Tales
1954 short story collection by Alberto Moravia
Roman Tales (Italian: Racconti romani) is a series of sixty-one short stories written by the Italian author, Alberto Moravia. Written and published initially in the Italian newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, they were published as a collection in 1954 by Bompiani. All of the stories are set in Rome or its surroundings after World War II and focus on 'the common people of Rome' (Roma popolana). The characters in these stories tend to be the unemployed, ex-convicts, waiters, drivers, con artists, thieves and petty criminals, the average man (or woman) and the lower classes aspiring to climb out of poverty.
All the stories are told in the first person with the narrator often unnamed, although details are usually furnished to provide a clue to the narrator's identity, such as their occupation, motivations and social status. Roman Tales provide a snapshot on life in Rome after World War II, revealing much about the inhabitants of Rome in the early 1950s.
Titles of the short stories
Below is a list of the names of the short stories that comprise the Roman Tales. Their order is the same presented in volume 3, tome 1 of Alberto Moravia's, Opere (ISBN 8845244148), a multi-volume set containing all of Moravia's writings published by Bompiani in 2000:
Fanatico (The Fanatic)
Arrivederci
Pioggia di maggio (Rain in May)
Non approfondire (Don't Delve Too Deeply . . .)
La bella serata
Scherzi del caldo (Hot Weather Jokes)
La controfigura
Il pagliaccio (The Clown)
Il biglietto falso
Il camionista (The Lorry-Driver)
Il pensatore
Scorfani
Il mediatore (The Go-Between)
Il pupo (The Baby)
Il delitto perfetto (The Perfect Crime)
Il picche nicche
La voglia di vino
Prepotente per forza
Sciupone
La giornata nera
I gioielli (Jewellery)
Tabù (Taboo)
Io non dico di no (I Don't say no . . .)
L'inconsciente
Il provino
Il pignolo
La ciociara (The Girl from Ciociaria)
Impataccato
Scherzi di ferragosto
Il terrore di Roma (The Terror of Rome)
L'amicizia (Friendship)
La rovina dell'umanità (The Ruin of Humanity)
Perdipiede
Vecchio stupido (Silly Old Fool)
Caterina
La parola mamma
Gli occhiali (A Pair of Spectacles)
Il cane cinese
Mario (Mario)
Gli amici senza soldi
Bu bu bu
Ladri in chiesa
Precisamente a te
Faccia di mascalzone
Un uomo sfortunato
Tirato a sorte
Pigliati un brodo
La vita in campagna
Le sue giornate
La gita
La rivincita di Tarzan
Romolo e Remo (Romulus and Remus)
Faccia da norcino
L'appetito (Appetite)
L'infermiera (The Nurse)
Il tesoro (The Treasure)
La concorrenza
Bassetto
Il guardiano (The Caretaker)
Il naso (The Nose)
Il godipoco
In translation
A handful of Moravia's Racconti romani were published in an English translation, entitled Roman Tales, in 1957 by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2202452. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2000 and 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roman Tales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.