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The Leopard
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The Leopard
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The Leopard
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The Leopard

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Elegiac, bittersweet and profoundly moving, The Leopard chronicles the turbulent transformation of the Risorgimento, in the period of Italian Unification. The waning feudal authority of the elegant and stately Prince of Salina is pitted against the materialistic cunning of Don Calogero, in Tomasi’s magnificently descriptive memorial to a dying age. Tomasi’s award-winning, semi-autobiographical book became the best-selling novel in Italian history, and is now considered one of the greatest works of 20th-century fiction. It tells an age-old tale of the conflict between old and new, ancient and modern, reflecting bitterly on the inevitability and cruelty of change.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 1, 2009
ISBN9789629548926
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The Leopard

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Rating: 4.124688238653366 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Leopard was published in 1958 - and 2008 is the fifty year anniversary. If - as Goethe once said - Sicily is the key to Italy, than The Leopard is the key to understanding Sicily. While clearly a modernist novel with multiple points of view and a focus on the body, it reads like a late 19th century novel of manners, perfectly re-creating for a modern audience a lost world. This is sort of summed up neatly in the novels most famous line "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." Some critics have charged it is too celebratory of the Aristocracy and old order, but Lanza Tomasi (Lampedusa's adopted son) recently said the "miracle" of the book is no reader identifies with the lower class, "everyone believes he is the Prince." The Prince is torn between intelligence and lust, described with irony in softly poetic passages. It feels like a 19thh century novel but the use of Freudian psychological theory to explain and understand motives lends it a lack of moral certitude and thus cleary placing it as a 20th century modernist tradition.As a curious aside with numbers, the main part of the text takes place in 1860 - the last chapter jumps forward fifty years to 1910 Incidentally, the same year Virginia Woolf famously announced the end of an era: "On or about December 1910 human character changed." Fifty years after 1910 in 1960 The Leopard reached a world wide audience. And this review is written 50 years after that. Such are the neat and tidy 50-year periods of the story intertwined with history, I believe Lampedusa would have smiled with the continuity.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I had been wanted to read this book for a number of years and then saw it on the shelves of Newtown Library. An enjoyable read with characters who no longer fit with their times both because their way of life is better and worse. In part for me I think the story of how and by whom the book was written is as much a part of the pleasure as the reading itself. I think this book would be improved by reading/familiarity with 19th and 20th century Italian history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant--comparable to Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera. My Italian friend insisted I read this novel before our visit to Sicily, and I will never be able to thank her enough.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a disappointing and tedious novel about a powerful Sicilian family during the last days of the Risorgimento, when the unification of the states and kingdoms of present day Italy took place. None of the characters, including the main one, Don Fabrizio, held my interest for long, and the book was filled with petty squabbles, men who lusted after everyone except their own spouses, and innumerable class and power struggles. I may not have been in the proper frame of mind to fully appreciate it, but I doubt that I'll give it a second chance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the author's only works of fiction, and surely somewhat autobiographical. I knew very little about the Risorgimento and the birth of Italy, so this gives good context to some of the statues of Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele. Unfortunately, it is very character driven and, since not all of the characters are essential to the plot, it drags somewhat.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The portuguese translation of the italian classic Il Gattopardo. A great book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The best italian novel of the second half of XX century I have read
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the best historical novels that I have ever read (and reread). It tells an epic family story in beautiful prose. Lampedusa never strikes a wrong note and creates, in the patriarch of the family, Don Fabrizio the Sicilian prince, one of the great tragic figures in literature. The novel successfully depicts the end of his world and the beginning of modern Italy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I would like to spend a couple weeks as the Prince's guest in the Donafugatta Palace - or hell, any of his other villas - I don't care! Although his way of life was ending, I'd like to have been in on it before the last gasp. It sounded very leisurely and attractive.It put me in mind of Chekhov. The end of an era and so on. I thought Lampedusa's narrative voice somewhat wrenching and intrusive at times with his unexpected and out of sync tidbits of information about how things present in the 1860's narrative were to change or be affected in the 20th century. An unusual and disruptive authorial decision. But a very enjoyable, and informative experience about the Risorgimento and Garibaldi episode in Sicilian history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Leopard is set in Sicily in the 1860's, around the time a united Italy was formed. The plot involves events in the lives of Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, and his family, set against a backdrop of revolution and the collapse of the old aristocracy. I read this in translation so my comments reflect that rather than the original Italian but the language is breathtaking. When Fabrizio walks into a room in the palace, the reader follows his eyes as they take in every detail and hear his reflections on the history of the objects there. There is such a strong sense of place. I was fascinated with his description of the Sicilian character. When a representative of the new national government asks him to join the Senate, describing all the improvements that will be coming to Sicily, Fabrizio declines, explaining that Sicilians don't want improvements. "They are coming to teach us good manners...But they won't succeed because we think we are gods." The story of his family is simple: love, marriage, jealousy, death, all seen through the old man's eyes and filtered through his understanding of the collapse around him. This is a marvelous book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a book that I came to via a culinary program on BBC4 that sought to recreate some of the meals described in the novel. It was an absolutely terrific read, the best book I have read in a while. The historical content was interesting without becoming tedious, and the characters, principally Don Fabrizio (The Leopard himself), were wonderfully imagined/remembered. The book really managed to evoke time and place incredibly vividly, and Lampedusa clearly understood his historical surroundings very clearly. The elaborate use of metaphors was very interesting, and masterfully carried out. My favorite part was most definitely Part VII, and all the sections with Berdico, the Prince's faithful dog. The only disappointment for me was the final chapter, Relic's, which seemed a little less powerful than the rest, functioning as I saw it more as a coda than a climax to the novel. The accompanying Appendix and Forward in my edition were very enlightening, and revealed some interesting details about the author, and his work. I would very much like to read the novel in the original Italian, as I believe (as is suggested in the Translators Note) that in the language in which it was conceived it would be even more exquisite. All things considered, a truly great book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set in the 1860's and the times are changing, but not in the Sicily of Don Fabrizio, the Prince of Salina, commonly known as The Leopard. He is definitely "old school" but has the grace and dignity to let the new ways in without taking over. Those new ways are embraced by his earnest nephew Tancredi of whom Fabriziio is strangely fond. He even encourages his marriage to the rich and beautiful Angelica, despite her dubious background. I was greatly amused by the imagery of "swallowing the toad" as he and Angelica's father work out the details of the marriage contract.Lampedusa writes beautifully of his ancestors and provides many vivid descriptions of palaces, balls, the land and people -- aristocrats and peasants alike. Many details of everyday life are painstakingly portrayed while at the same time the historical significance is conveyed. Prince Fabrizio refuses to take a political role in the reunified country and is subdued by nostalgia for the old ways even as the new regime takes over. However, he is a true Sicilian in that his vanity and pride in his country is stronger than his misery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Leopard is a lush series of vignettes set at the birth of a united Italy beginning in the 1860s. Its author, Guiseppe di Lampedusa, is the great grandson of Sicilian Prince Don Fabrizio, also know as "The Leopard" and the main character of the novel.The novel captures the slow, sensual, sun-baked world of Sicily as characters maneuver to find love and happiness and preserve their way of life. Things move slowly and people change only reluctantly, understanding that "things must change in order to stay the same." The author uses the story to help readers place the Sicilian worldview in the context of the landscape and its history. The prince languidly discusses the coming political changes as the story moves forward. He confides his antipathy toward change to his ambitious nephew. He listens to the reasoned emotions of his faithful retainer who prefers royal generosity. He sees the opportunity for characters like the greedy mayor of the small town where his estates are located. His final decision on where to secure his place in the new regime gives the reader some insights into the politics of another time and culture.In structuring the book, the author makes interesting choices about how to organize the chronological progression of events and what to include and exclude. For me the book started slowly but built in intensity and ended with a satisfying but unconventional resolution.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Don Fabrizio / abed with Princess Stella / Gesummaria!The The Leopard is structured not so much as a novel but as a still life. Lampedusa describes each scene with the eye of an accountant: there, in Concetta's room, a high bed with four pillows, a money chest with dozens of drawers, portraits, watercolors, sacred images on the wall, four enormous wooden cases containing dozens of shirts, sheets of best and second-best quality. The Sicilians who inhabit these scenes are, but they do not. Life happens around them, they, like a dog sleeping in the shade cast by a blazing Sicilian sun.It is as though Lampedusa had discovered a vintage room in a museum, or in an ancestor's house, reporting its image in excruciating detail, meanwhile investing it with a population of his imagination. The setting is Garibaldi's Sicilian campaign and its aftermath, but it really doesn't matter--nothing changes for Don Fabrizio or his family. The Don sees in himself the end of the line of Leopards but that has little to do with external forces and everything to do with the diminished capacity of the next generation. He positions himself well with the new regime, he maintains his estates and his prestige (both somewhat reduced). He does not have to partition his almond grove, like the Pirrones, or part with his cherry orchard, like Chekhov's Ranevsky. There is a new day dawning in Sicily, but it is no different than yesterday.The unifying character throughout The Leopard is Bendico, the Great Dane, who appears on the first page and is finally well disposed on the last page. His arc has a 45-year denouement, well befitting the Sicilian life. Like a dog. Indeed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Read for the LT Group Read, I don't think I would have found out about it otherwise! It was a lovely Italian history lesson with colorful, endearing characters and great insights into human behavior. There were some lengthy passages about the war which I felt could have been handled in more dynamic way and the ending was rather disjointed, but overall some wonderful images and descriptions of great originality.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sadly, this is the only novel written by the author, and he only just completed it before he died. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as I see it, good in that he managed to finish writing the book in time, bad that he did not start writing a bit earlier in life so he could have rattled off a few more. But, the preface has something interesting to bear in mind, which having read the book I found myself recalling and agreeing with. It says that an author can only write his first novel once, and that subsequent novels will be affected by the previous works, perhaps not being all that they could have been if they were written without the influence of other ideas. I don't know how true this is, but the author apparently spent his whole life immersed in literature, reading, teaching, discussing it, and this appears to have culminated in him writing this single excellent novel. The story itself is based around his family history, which doesn't sound in itself anything to get too excited about. The story centres around the Prince of Lampedusa - the Leopard - the authors great grandfather. It details family life, the changes occurring in Italy politically, and life in Sicily. The plot isn't intriguing or fast paced, or overly stimulating, but there's enough "human interest" and understated drama to keep the reader interested. This is not really what the book is about though, this book is subtle, and would lose its effect with anything too theatrical or exaggerated going on. This isn't to say that the book is not impressive though, it is just impressive in descriptions of the nuances of the characters moods, the varied environments, and the often wry or amusing interchanges of dialogue. This book paints a now non-existent world, and thanks to the author it has been preserved, if only in fiction for us to enjoy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you want to understand Italy and its politics, this book is a must.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power. At times the prose seemed stilted, but overall this was very enjoyable and beautifully written
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A very rich book, in every sense of the word. the author evokes time and place with masterful strokes, and the book lingers in the mind like a strong perfume.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Leopard is a rich and descriptive novel about a Sicilian prince in the 1860s, an age when aristocracy and the upper classes were in decline. Published posthumously, the author was himself a prince. This book distills Lampedusa's life experiences and associated wisdom into a short 210 pages. The novel is primarily a character study, full of eloquent language and imagery. The figure of Don Fabrizio, the patriarchal prince, looms large: "As he crossed the two rooms preceding the study he tried to imagine himself as an imposing leopard with smooth scented skin preparing to tear a timid jackal to pieces ... it was an irritated Leopard that entered the study." (p. 105) He commands attention in the evenings as he reads "out to his family a modern novel in instalments, exuding dignified benevolence from every pore." (p. 119). And yet he struggles with his decline in local society where, "no longer the major landowner in Donnafugata, ... now found himself forced to receive, when in afternoon dress himself, a guest appearing in evening clothes." (p. 73) Each chapter of the novel is lush and descriptive, painting a picture of the local village, a summer home, and (my personal favorite), a ball: "Evoked, created almost by the approving words and still more approving thoughts, the Colonel now appeared at the top of the stairs. He was moving amid a tinkle of epaulettes, chains and spurs in his well-padded, double-breasted uniform, a plumed hat under his arm and his left wrist propped on a curved sabre. He was a man of the world with graceful manners, well-versed, as all Europe knew by now, in hand-kissings dense with meaning; every lady whose fingers were brushed by his perfumed moustaches that night was able to re-evolke from first-hand knowledge the historical incident so highly praised in the popular press. .... Above the ordered swirl of her pink crinoline Angelica's white shoulders merged into strong soft arms; her head looked small and proud on its smooth youthful neck adorned with intentionally modest pearls. And when from the opening of her long kid glove she drew a hand which though not small was perfectly shaped, on it was seen glittering the Neapolitan sapphire." (p.168-169). It is during this very ball that Fabrizio begins to loathe the very society that has made him a rich and powerful man. The novel's remaining chapters leap across the decades, portraying Fabrizio's decline and his legacy.Since the best part of this book is its very language, it is best read in a quiet nook, and when time allows it to be savored. If conditions are right, the reader will be rewarded.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Set primarily in 1860 the year of Garibaldi's March of 1000 on Sicily to liberate it from the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and of the plebiscite for the unification of Italy under the House of Savoy, and 1861, The Leopard is ostensibly the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, whose coat of arms contains the leopard of the title. Superficially, it is a "novel of manners", since a good part of the book is a detailed description of the life of the Sicilian nobility at this time--the vapidness of the upper classes, their courtships, their prejudices, their obsession with correct behavior and status. But it is far more than that. Don Fabrizio who in many ways is a typical Sicilian nobleman in his attitude towards land and money, towards tradition and the rising bourgeoisie, is also an anomaly. He is a physically imposing man, vital, full of energy, with physical characteristics that mark him as more leonine than leopard. He is a scientist, an astronomer, who has his own observatory and delights in spending hours tracking comets, observing the planets and stars and calculating of orbits. He, far more than others of his class, intuitively sees what the Risorgimento and the new, northern government will change--and what will NOT happen. He has an instinct for Sicily itself and knows that external forces can not possibly counteract the land itself:"I've explained myself badly; I said Sicilians, I should have added Sicily, the atmosphere. the climate, the landscape of Sicily. those are the forces which have formed our minds together with and perhaps more than the foreign dominations and ill-assorted rapes; this landscape which knows no mean between sensuous slackness and hellish drought; which is never petty, never ordinary, never relaxed, as a country made for rational beings to live in should be..."Yet despite the resistance of the land and the people, change is coming to the nobility, and Don Fabrizio sees it clearly. His nephew Tancredi is heir to a famous estate, but is penniless, thanks to recklessness on the part of his immediate ancestors. Tancredi conveniently falls in love with Angelica, daughter of the wealthy merchant and now landlord, Don Calogero Saldara. The petit bourgouisie at its worst--scenes at the Salina castle and at a Christmas party given by another noble family make it clear that there is an abyss between the two classes that money itself will never bridge. The House of Salina is old, very old; the house of Soldara will never cover the distance in time and experience.Yet, Don Fabrizio sees that even the nobility will become degraded. As he is dying, he looks at his grandson Fabrizietto"...with his good-time instincts, with his tendency to middle-lass chic. It was useless to try to avoid the thought, but the last of the Salinas was really himself, this gaunt giant now dying on a hotel balcony. for the significance of a noble family lies entirely in its traditions, that is in its vital memories; and he was the last to have any unusual memories andy different from those of other families. Fabrizietto would only have banal ones like his schoolfellows, of snacks, of spiteful jokes against teachers, horses bought with an eye more to price than to quality; and the meaning of his name would change more and more to empty pomp embittered by the gadfly thought that others could do him in outward show."At first the end seems to be superfluous, anticlimactic. The Prince has died over 20 years before. But it is only in the final paragraphs that the reign of The Leopard comes to an end.The writing in this book is incredibly powerful. There are scenes that amaze in their evocative description, such as the one towards the end of a ball depicting the family as the party comes to an end. There is nearly an entire chapter that describes the way Tancredi and Angelica spend hours each day alone exploring the Salina castle--dusty rooms, forgotten suites--with the rising sexual tension between them. The death of the Prince is a stunning tour de force.Di Lampedusa was himself a prince, and he wrote the book using his paternal great-grandfather as the model for Don Fabrizio. Finished in 1957, he died before the manuscript was published in 1958. The Leopard quickly became a classic of international literature; its fascination and power seem likely to endure.Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It is a wonderful book that recreates beautifully a world that no longer exists by someone who was part of that world. The characters are so vividly portrayed and with such detail that you feel, while reading, that you have known the various characters for a long time. I highly recommend it. I have read it several times and always keep a copy in my library.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Classic novel about an Italy in a state of great change. It follows the prince of Salina and his family as their comfortable and seemingly timeless existence is eroded away by the emerging modern state. Beautifully written, this is quite simply one of the best boks I have read and I will never tire of re-reading it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The most attractive things in this great book- details that convey, supplement the mood of characters. Situate very well the novel and characters in history. economy of words. Probing of mind. A lot is left unsaid but still conveyed. he may not be taking sides overtly but there is no question on whose side his heart is. Purity/nobilty of thought in the nobility is extolledThe refusal to accept the offer is correct(as things became more democratic and open contest took oplace, he could have lost elections and even if this did not happen, he could not have fallen to the level of the other parliamentarians; it is something like a person who finds that he cannot learn the computer skills required to prolong his relevance in the corporate world) but the reasons he gives are too idealistic. Almost a refusal to be realistic. Too much fatalism/realism?(the kids are not too smart and the father can live with that; the land is dwindling and there is no way he can stop its dwindling; the mayor’s daughter has the beauty that cannot be denied and his doter(s) left in lurch; his hunting partner is more devoted to feudalism than his feudal lord and the feudal lord can do nothing to maintain the feudal setup) change clouding his thinking. But he has an irresistible excuse for that- “We Sicilians are different and cannot, willnot changeâ€?. One feels that he is parlaysed by the prospect of public humiliation. What would the fellow Sicilians say? The price that one has to pay for being smarter and more foresighted. He would rather sacrifice the interests of his sons and daughters than fight a losing battle on their side. To have fought and lost might be better for almost everyone but not if you have the rarefied tastes and sensibility of the prince. He chooses the course of action which brings disaster to his own family but which still keeps the family character alive through Tancredi.Royal tastes and the perks of royalty, chief among them the occasional overriding of religious constraints. Honour and honesty. Cannot and will not adopt the lowly ways of the new rich to maintain their hold. Along with democracy in the political sphere, democracy in the religious sphere too. The church was in the Prince’s pocket. Dared not question his indiscretion. Once he is gone and the suffocating air of patriarchy disappears, those used to it also collapse. In fact the entire structure collapses. The prince(and his family) can tolerate the eclipse in the economic and political(if one can call the cosy maintenance of status quo relations among the nobility as politics) sphere but the eclipse by the church which had itself been reduced to a fraction of former power and size is the final humiliation.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I doubt the English translation by Archibald Colquhoun could be beaten.This book is a little difficult to get into at first, but don't give up, it's worth the effort. By the end I was almost regretting the passing of each paragraph.The language has poetry, humour and is touchingly human. And I felt sorry to let go of Fabrizio, someone I felt quite close to by the end.Probably the other book which most closely left me feeling the way I did at the end of this one was The Tree of Man by Patrick White (though if you haven't read both it's probably too difficult for me to explain why).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Guiseppi Lampedusa wrote one novel and it was wonderful.

    He was unknown as an Author in his lifetime and the last of the "Leopard" line of Lampedusa aristocracy in Sicily. It was found after Guiseppi died in 1957.

    I recommend reading the biography about him here on Scribd.

    The Narrator handles the Italian with ease so you're never caught up in mispronunciations.

    Good character development and flow of events in 1860 as the nobility either embraced the change or fled to England.

    You will enjoy if you like historical novels
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Story of the end of a dynasty. Set in Sicily during 19th century during the garabaldi revolution. Keep an ear on the dog. He is significant!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautifully narrated and so descriptive in all areas a total pleasure to listen to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excelente Narración te transporta a la época y a cada instante
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved the world of this novel and didn’t want it to end so soon.