Death and the Dolce Vita: The Dark Side of Rome in the 1950s

by Stephen Gundle

Overview

“A brilliant, methodical investigation of a murder scandal that convulsed the Roman political and social establishment in the 1950s” (Financial Times).
 
On April 9 1953, twenty-one-year-old Wilma Montesi went missing from her family home in Rome. Thirty-six hours later her body was found washed up on a neglected public beach. Some said it was suicide; others, a tragic accident. But as the police tried to close the case, darker rumors bubbled to the surface. Could it be that the mysterious death of this quiet, conservative girl was linked to a drug-fueled orgy, involving some of the richest and most powerful men in Italy?
 
Death and the Dolce Vita, “a hybrid of history and police detection, brilliantly recreates the details of the Montesi affair” in light of the postwar economic miracolo italiano that inspired Fellini’s classic film of libertine frivolity. “As well as being a thriller, [it] provides an excellent account of the virtues and misdeeds of Europe’s most foxy political class” (Ian Thompson, The Guardian, UK).
 
“An intense, claustrophobic narrative of murder, mystery and scandal worthy of a Verdi opera . . . a page-turning narrative that explores its extraordinary characters and even more extraordinary cover-ups, evasions and dissemblage, reaching to the top of Italian political life.” —The Scotsman, UK

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857860491
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	01/16/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	408,841
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Stephen Gundle is an historian with specialist interest in modern Italy. His books include Bellissima: Feminine Beauty and the Idea of Italy and Glamour: A History. Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, he has also lived for many years in Italy, and is a contributor to History Today, Radio 4's Night Waves and the Italian press.

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae ix

Prologue 1

Part 1

I The Body on the Beach 11

II The Rumour Mill 23

III Politics and Scandal 35

IV Via Margutta 47

V Hollywood on the Tiber 58

VI Girl About Town 74

VII The Marchese of San Bartolomeo 89

VIII New and Old Rome 97

Part 2

IX Muto on Trial 111

X A New Investigation 133

XI Via Veneto 154

XII Piccioni's Alibi 167

XIII The Establishment Fights Back 179

XIV A Family Under Stress 186

XV The Long Arm of the Mafia 201

XVI Dr Sepe Reports 216

XVII The Venice Trial 229

Part 3

XVIII The Rise of the Paparazzi 267

XIX The 'Sweet Life' on Screen 290

XX Aftermath 306

XXI Keys to the Case 321

Epilogue 343

Bibliography 355

Filmography 366

Notes on Sources 367

Acknowledgements 382

Index 385

Editorial Reviews

The term "eroticism of detail" could have been made for this book . . . an intense, claustrophobic narrative of murder, mystery and scandal worthy of a Verdi opera . . . a page-turning narrative that explores its extraordinary characters and even more extraordinary cover-ups, evasions and dissemblage, reaching to the top of Italian political life.

Scotsman

Gundle's intellectual energy and his capacity for research has produced a book that vibrates with the peculiarities of post-war Italy, particularly those of Rome. It is a powerful, convincing recreation of a time and a place.

Glasgow Sunday Herald

A must-read for crime novel fans.

Oxford Times

A dark, dramatic true-crime story.

Saga

Thrilling . . . This is a fascinating story, full of intrigue, gossip, fascinating detail and surprising twists. But it is what Gundle does with the story that makes this such a good book . . . written with verve, this book is hard to put down - but it is also a classic Italian giallo (murder mystery), in which the authorities seem as dodgy as the accused.

TLS

What Gundle captures so magnificently is how the case shed light on the intersection between the stars of public life and the dark underbelly of post-war Rome.

Metro - Ben Felsenburg

An incredible story and a must-read for crime novel fans.

Press Association

Gundle traces a path through the labyrinth of investigation, cover-up and conspiracy theory that followed to show how the peculiar death of a respectable, unassuming carpenter's daughter came to develop into one of the great scandals - and unsolved mysteries - of the Fifties.

Daily Telegraph

Death and the Dolce Vita, a hybrid of history and police detection, brilliantly recreates the details of the Montesi affair...as well as being a thriller, [it] provides an excellent account of the virtues and misdeeds of Europe's most foxy political class.

Guardian - Ian Thompson

There is unlikely to be a more thorough and diligently researched account of the scandal than this one.

Spectator

This is microcosmic history at its most effective: Gundle finds big stories in the small print, teasing out the implications for city and nation of this darkly glamorous demi-monde of starlets and playboys, gossip columnists and - paparazzi.

Independent - Boyd Tonkin

A brilliant, methodical investigation of a murder scandal that convulsed the Roman political and social establishment in the 1950s.

Financial Times

The cover-up described in Gundle's brilliant real-life whodunit is eerily close to Berlusconi's Italy

Independent - Christopher Hirst

Inspired . . . the whole gloriously unimproving narrative provides the essential backstory for the Berlusconian bunga-bunga of Italy in our own day.

Literary Review

Captivating from the first page ... A tragic case, long-forgotten, has been skilfully resurrected in this brilliant expose of murder and scandal.

We Love This Book

What [Gundle] has done is brilliantly reconstruct the evolution of a conspiracy theory

Daily Express

A brilliant, methodical investigation of a murder scandal that convulsed the Roman political and social establishment in the 1950s.

Financial Times

What [Gundle] has done is brilliantly reconstruct the evolution of a conspiracy theory

Daily Express

"This is microcosmic history at its most effective: Gundle finds big stories in the small print, teasing out the implications for city and nation of this darkly glamorous demi-monde of starlets and playboys, gossip columnists and paparazzi."  —Independent

"An intense, claustrophobic narrative of murder, mystery and scandal worthy of a Verdi opera."  —Scotsman

From the Publisher