"Adriana, a simple girl with no fortune but her beauty, models naked for a painter, accepts gifts from men, and could never quite identify the moment she traded her private dream of home and children for the life a prostitute. The Woman of Rome is also the story of tortured university student Giacomo, a failed revolutionary who refuses to admit his desire for Adriana; of the sinister figure Astarita, a big shot with the political police who is obsessed with Adriana; and of the coarse and brutal criminal Sonzogno, who treats Adriana as his private property. Within this drama of passion, mystery and betrayal, Moravia calmly strips away the pride and arrogance hiding the corrupt heart of Italian Fascism. "--BOOK JACKET.