The Leopard: A Novel
by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
List Price:
Our Price: $7.73
You Save: $8.27 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.19 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Giuseppe Di LampedusaTranslator: Archibald Colquhuon
Foreword: Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-06
ISBN: 0375714790
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Leopard: A Novel
Book Review: A Family and a Way of Life in Decline as the Modern State of Italy Emerges
Summary: 5 Stars
Little known but widely acclaimed by those aware of it, Giuseppe de Lampedusa's THE LEOPARD relates a classic end-of-an-era story. In this case, the locale is a fiercely independent Sicily, the era is the end of Italian aristocracy at the advent of democratization and national unification, and the eponymous protagonist is effectively the last Prince of the House of Salina, Don Fabrizio.
During the 1860's, Italy experienced the Risorgimento, a drive for unification that saw the defeat of the Bourbon states, the invasion by and defeat of Garibaldi, and the plebiscite that brought on a single Italy under Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, with Rome as the national capital, by 1870. THE LEOPARD is firmly set in this era of unrest and political change, in a Sicily that clung with quiet desperation to its old, traditional ways. Don Fabrizio is the model gentleman of his class, a book reader and amateur astronomer, a landed gentry with multiple residences and farms, modestly successful in his business affairs, ever in outward control of his emotions, exquisitely well-mannered, and a careful reader of the political winds. At the same time, he is also the perfect tragic hero, fully self-aware of his own failings and even more aware that the aristocratic era is rapidly drawing to a close. He has a son, Paolo, who is destined to oversee the inescapable decline in the family's fortunes, along with three daughters who will likely marry well and give birth to children who will endure a far different Sicilian life. Since he views his own children's abilities as lacking, he transfers his future hopes onto his dashing and clever nephew, Tancredi, a political chameleon deemed by all as destined for greatness.
The book's story lines are minimal. Tancredi appears at Don Fabrizio's home, striking hopes for a marital match in Fabrizio's daughter, Concetta. Her hopes are rudely crushed, however, when Angelica, the stunning daughter of the culturally unpolished but newly wealthy Don Calogero, appears. Tancredi goes off to fight Garibaldi's forces, later to return as a hero and aspiring politician who wins Angelica's hand in matrimony. The national plebiscite is held, and Don Fabrizio's district miraculously reports a unanimous vote in favor of the new government even though at least one person claims to have voted against. Asked not long after to join the new government's Senate, Don Fabrizio declines, arguing that the day has passed for his type of inherited aristocracy in favor of more modern and aggressive businessmen like Don Calogero.
The bulk of the story takes place between May 1860 and November 1862, a time period when Italy's new government comes into being and the House of Salina begins its inevitable slide. The book's final two chapters jump first to 1888 (with the self-explanatory title, "Death of a Prince" and then 1910 (with the equally revealing title, "Relics"), as the Don's three aged daughters and Angelica live out their final years even as the storms that will burst into World War I are gathering force. Both chapters are magnificent closings, the former addressing the final rest of a gentle hero, the latter presenting a scathing commentary on the decline of the family matriarchy and the manner in which their fears and superstitions are exploited by the Church.
THE LEOPARD presents the steady decline of Italian aristocracy through the Salina family. Lampedusa achieves this masterful depiction by confining himself to simple events - family dinners, travels to summer houses, a social dinner party - seen through the fatalistic eyes of Don Fabrizio. His views are inadvertently seconded by his constant companion of the Catholic Church, Father Pirrone, whose actions and attitudes mirror and subtly amplify the Prince's own. Despair and slow decay prevail in the author's choice of descriptive phrases that create a heavily freighted atmosphere. "In front of every house the refuse of squalid meals accumulated along leprous walls; trembling dogs were routing about with a greed that was always disappointed....Chevalley hoisted himself up onto the post carriage, propped on four wheels the color of vomit. The horse, all hunger and sores, began its long journey."
Lampedusa was a late-comer to novel writing, penning THE LEOPARD in his late fifties only to see it rejected for publication. He died in 1957, tragically just one year before his work was finally published in Italian and three years before its first English translation. The reward for his perseverance should be a well-deserved wide readership of a book that is historical in its context but timeless in its meaning.
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.17
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Garden of the Finzi-Continisby Giorgio Bassani
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (A Harvest/HBJ Book); Published: 1977-12-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops:
Great Power Diplomacy: 1814-1914by Norman Rich
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 1991-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $85.00
A History of Modern Europe: From the French Revolution to the Present (Third Edition) (Vol. 2)by John Merriman
NA; W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $51.63
A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian Warby David Wetzel
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 2003-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
The Bridge on the Drina (Phoenix Fiction)by Ivo Andric
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1977-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The Conformistby Alberto Moravia
Zoland Books; Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Soldiers, Statesmen and July 1914by Samuel R. Williamson, Russel Van Wyk
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2003-02-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.43
The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Inventionby William Rosen
Random House; Published: 2010-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.87
Price in other shops:
Christ Stopped at Eboli: The Story of a Yearby Carlo Levi
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2006-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
The Leopard (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2004-06-08; DVD
Best price: $25.43
Price in other shops: