Theorem

by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Stuart Hood (Translator)

Overview

This tale about seduction, obsession, family, and the confines of capitalism is one of director Pier Paolo Pasolini's most fascinating creations, based on his transcendent film of the same name.

Theorem is the most enigmatic of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s four novels. The book started as a poem and took shape both as a work of fiction and a film, also called Theorem, released the same year. In short prose chapters interspersed with stark passages of poetry, Pasolini tells a story of transfiguration and trauma.

To the suburban mansion of a prosperous Milanese businessman comes a mysterious and beautiful young man who invites himself to stay. From the beginning he exercises a strange fascination on the inhabitants of the house, and soon everyone, from the busy father to the frustrated mother, from the yearning daughter to the weak-willed son to the housemaid from the country, has fallen in love with him. Then, as mysteriously as he appeared, the infatuating young man departs. How will these people he has touched so deeply do without him? Is there a passage out of the spiritual desert of modern capitalism into a new awakening, both of the senses and of the soul? Only questions remain at the end of a book that is at once a bedroom comedy, a political novel, and a religious parable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681377650
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	11/07/2023
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	604,267
File size:	661 KB

About the Author

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1972) was an Italian filmmaker and writer known for his defiance of the political, social, and artistic status quos of postwar Italy. In his work across mediums, he broached taboo topics in relation to sexuality, religion, and the condition of the poor. In the 1950s, he became well-known in Italy for his novels and poetry, winning the Viareggio Prize for the latter in 1957. In the 1960s and 70s, he was catapulted to international fame for his films, including The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Mamma Roma, Salò, Oedipus Rex, and The Hawks and the Sparrows.

Stuart Hood (1915-2011) was a Scottish translator, novelist, and television executive for BBC. During WWII, he served as an intelligence officer, was held as an Italian prisoner of war, and eventually became a leader in the Italian resistance, as is recounted in his memoir Pebbles from My Skull. His forty-plus translations include works by Ernst Jünger, Erich Fried, Dino Buzzati, and Dario Fo.

Editorial Reviews

08/07/2023

Pasolini (Boys Alive) undertakes both a sensual odyssey and an incisive critique of the lack of social conscience of the Italian bourgeoisie in his 1969 novel. A handsome stranger, who is given no name but consistently referred to as “the guest,” seduces, in turn, five members of an affluent Milanese household: the maid, father, mother, and both children. The guest inevitably departs, leaving behind a very different family: Emilia, the maid, attains sainthood with a shocking decision; son Pietro leaves home to pursue art; Paolo, the patriarch, donates his factory to its workers; wife Lucia pursues younger men; and daughter Odetta becomes catatonic. Pasolini (1922–1975) displays compassion for the individual members of the family and their idleness, longing, and anomie, while the acts of seduction provide erotic tension, with lush descriptions of setting layering sensuality into the story. The detached, omniscient narrator calls the book variously “a report” and “a parable,” offering aloof observations accentuated by the book’s format, relayed in brief, titled chapters. Evocative poems on first love and fate appear throughout, and two late chapters pose a series of provocative questions illuminating the narrative’s underlying themes. This is a penetrating exploration of existential meaning. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Written in tandem with his 1968 film of the same name (Teorema), Pasolini’s resonant parable examines the spiritual bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie through a strikingly effective blend of brief vignettes, scenarios, and plangent poetic utterances....[his] spare lyricism complements and transcends his playfully detached framework of data, corollaries, and appendices, resulting in an affecting and captivating interrogation into the earthly and the sublime." —David Wright, Library Journal

"Pier Paolo Pasolini...wants to tell us the tale of a miracle in the desecrated modern world. The mysterious and attractive young man who comes to visit the bourgeois family is a god, and [Theorem] recounts what miracles occur when a god appears in the lives of mortals." —Alberto Moravia

"Theorem...evinces [Pasolini's] seemingly irreconcilable allegiances to Marx, Freud, and Jesus Christ." —James Quandt

"Pasolini…undertakes both a sensual odyssey and an incisive critique of the lack of social conscience of the Italian bourgeoisie in his 1969 novel…This is a penetrating exploration of existential meaning."  —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

11/01/2023

Written in tandem with his 1968 film of the same name (Teorema), Pasolini's (1922–72) resonant parable examines the spiritual bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie through a strikingly effective blend of brief vignettes, scenarios, and plangent poetic utterances. As foretold by an ecstatic angelic messenger, a wealthy Milanese family is visited by a mysterious and charismatic guest who, "like a carnal inspiration," lovingly seduces each and then passes on down the road. Diverse existential crises unfold in his wake, as father, mother, son, daughter, and housemaid struggle with the "terrible freedom of the void" to master "a pain that has no name and certainly no cure." Their paths range from shady sexual trysting, rebellious artistic fervor, catatonic madness, and stark material renunciation to truly miraculous ascension, sainthood, and martyrdom. VERDICT Pasolini's spare lyricism complements and transcends his playfully detached framework of data, corollaries, and appendices, resulting in an affecting and captivating interrogation into the earthly and the sublime.

Library Journal