Paolo Unbound — Vitaliano Brancati

Baron Paolo Castorini, a man of the lower nobility, is enslaved by an uncontrollable sex drive. His adventures, sometimes tragic and often grotesque, constitute a veritable descent into hell as Paolo's prolonged and predatory encounters become an attempt to escape his obvious moral and physical decay.

The bravado and chauvinism in this novel deftly critique the bourgeois society of prewar Italy and the defeat of reason in the face of lust.