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A review by bibliophile_37
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
5.0
As historical novels go, there is a certain amount of preoccupation with royal families saturating many of them. Lampedusa’s novel, based upon his grandfather and his lineage from minor princes, is no different, but it is one of the richer novels of this genre for its language and descriptions.
Set during the time of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, the story sees Don Fabrizio, a prince from a noble and powerful Sicilian family, leading his people during the Risorgimento. The Prince is a womaniser and foresees the downfall of his family and Italian nobility, but finds himself incapable of changing the course of events that are to follow.
When Naples comes under attack, the Prince knows that he will be the last Leopard; the last of his line to lead under the old ways as his people are in favour of change. His nephew Tancredi, whom the Prince believes to be a younger version of himself, advises his uncle that in order “for everything to stay the same, everything must change.” While the Prince understands this, his distaste for the new ways that have been seeping into the kingdom is obvious.
The Prince also suspects that Tancredi has fallen in with a bad crowd, namely the rebels who are fighting to overthrow the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. When Tancredi is recruited by Garibaldi to join his fighters in the mountains, the Prince attempts to dissuade him, but Tancredi believes he is fighting for a greater good. The Prince escapes the revolution by going to his estate in Donnafugata with Tancredi and his loyal dog Bendicò in tow. There they meet Don Calogero Sedàra and his daughter Anjelica, inviting a course of events that will change the lives of the entire family and for Italy itself.
The novel is extraordinary with language that is rare in its lusciousness and vitality. Even when describing the Prince’s long held belief that he has been dying for many years, the author relays how the Prince has felt “as if the vital fluid… life itself in fact and perhaps even the will to go on living, were ebbing out of him… as grains of sand cluster and then line up one by one, unhurried, unceasing, before the narrow neck of an hourglass.”
For a novel that was considered unpublishable by two major Italian publishers of the time, Lampedusa’s story has survived and was adapted into an opulent film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. Despite the controversy that surrounded it at the time of its publication, the novel has gone on to great acclaim. It is a much loved tale of mortality and its workings, but it is written with a deep-rooted intelligence and knowledge of the human psyche; these characters are just as fallible as you and me. With this knowledge comes poignancy and Lampedusa embraces all aspects of the frailty of the human condition, even in its most noblest of subjects. His writing is subtle, but noticeable. Witty and structured with a deadly precision, it is as close to perfection as writing can be. The emotion and the feeling created from mere words is rarely exhibited as masterfully as it is in this book. Treat yourself to The Leopard for a truly exceptional read.
Set during the time of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, the story sees Don Fabrizio, a prince from a noble and powerful Sicilian family, leading his people during the Risorgimento. The Prince is a womaniser and foresees the downfall of his family and Italian nobility, but finds himself incapable of changing the course of events that are to follow.
When Naples comes under attack, the Prince knows that he will be the last Leopard; the last of his line to lead under the old ways as his people are in favour of change. His nephew Tancredi, whom the Prince believes to be a younger version of himself, advises his uncle that in order “for everything to stay the same, everything must change.” While the Prince understands this, his distaste for the new ways that have been seeping into the kingdom is obvious.
The Prince also suspects that Tancredi has fallen in with a bad crowd, namely the rebels who are fighting to overthrow the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. When Tancredi is recruited by Garibaldi to join his fighters in the mountains, the Prince attempts to dissuade him, but Tancredi believes he is fighting for a greater good. The Prince escapes the revolution by going to his estate in Donnafugata with Tancredi and his loyal dog Bendicò in tow. There they meet Don Calogero Sedàra and his daughter Anjelica, inviting a course of events that will change the lives of the entire family and for Italy itself.
The novel is extraordinary with language that is rare in its lusciousness and vitality. Even when describing the Prince’s long held belief that he has been dying for many years, the author relays how the Prince has felt “as if the vital fluid… life itself in fact and perhaps even the will to go on living, were ebbing out of him… as grains of sand cluster and then line up one by one, unhurried, unceasing, before the narrow neck of an hourglass.”
For a novel that was considered unpublishable by two major Italian publishers of the time, Lampedusa’s story has survived and was adapted into an opulent film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. Despite the controversy that surrounded it at the time of its publication, the novel has gone on to great acclaim. It is a much loved tale of mortality and its workings, but it is written with a deep-rooted intelligence and knowledge of the human psyche; these characters are just as fallible as you and me. With this knowledge comes poignancy and Lampedusa embraces all aspects of the frailty of the human condition, even in its most noblest of subjects. His writing is subtle, but noticeable. Witty and structured with a deadly precision, it is as close to perfection as writing can be. The emotion and the feeling created from mere words is rarely exhibited as masterfully as it is in this book. Treat yourself to The Leopard for a truly exceptional read.