Rating: 
Summary: An Italian War and Peace
Review: A journey through the life of an Italian noble family at the time of national reunification as slow as a Sicilian afternoon. Offers a view of Italy at a time of change, a compact Italian War and Peace.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic story from Sicily
Review: A slowly crumbling dynasty. An erratic leader. A turbulent political landscape. Giuseppe Lampedusa's The Leopard takes the reader through the political revolution in Italy during the 1860s through the lens of an aging Sicilian prince. The prince, Don Fabrizio, is a tragic character whose struggle evokes many different emotions that will be interesting to most readers. Don Fabrizio's response to the instability highlights the complexities of leadership and hierarchy. The book is a good leisure read for anyone who likes historical fiction.
Rating:
Summary: He Wrote About What He Knew
Review: di Lampedusa, Giuseppe, The Leopard. 1957. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988.
"Write about what you know" has never been a better-applied axiom than here. The author's descriptions of 1860s Sicily following Garibaldi's coup against the Bourbon regime, is a masterpiece of intricate detail and plotting. Added to this delightful "new world" he presents to the reader, are the characters: the proud prince of the title, now gradually reduced to suffer falling fortunes because of the regime change, the clever and humane Jesuit priest, Father Pirrone, who has become a household companion to Don Fabrizio, the swashbuckling Tancredi, the prince's haughty "Republican" nephew, and his betrothed, Angelica, the new mayor's beautiful daughter. Lampedusa's deep insight into the manners and psychology of the era make the novel a splendid and eye-opening read. The desolation and poverty of dusty, rocky Sicily overrun by invaders five times, is portrayed realistically, as are the emotional tensions within and between the characters.
Even in Archibald Carquhoun's stiff translation, the work comes alive. The constricted world of jealous citizens, royal or poverty-stricken, takes on a very modern appearance. Illiterate they may be, but even the poorest peasants demonstrate a slickness of thinking and behavior that would make Machiavelli proud. As for the sensitive Leopard, aware of his downward spiral into a lonely life in a ruined castle, we can only empathize.
And there is soft humor: "Even the Magdalen between the two windows looked penitent and not just a handsome blonde in some dubious daydream, as she usually was."
"The two telescopes and three lenses were lying there quietly, dazed by the sun, with black pads over their eyepieces, like well-trained animals who knew their meal was given to them only at night."
"Grim Palermo itself lay crouching quietly around its contents like a flock of sheep around their shepherds."
"Love. Of course, love. Flames for a year, ashes for thirty."
"Peaches with a faint flush of rosy pink on their cheeks, like those of Chinese girls."
"'D'you remember, Papa, how...he took those peaches we'd so been looking forward to?' Then she suddenly looked dour, as if she were the chairwoman of an association for owners of damaged orchards."
"They plunged at once into the skirmish of insignificant words which precede great verbal battles."
"The horseshoes sounded muffled amid the dark houses, asleep or pretending to sleep."
That the author himself was a prince, writing about his great-grandfather, lends authenticity to the novel, but the fact that he died a few months after finishing it is uncanny, because the death of Don Fabrizio at 73 is described with such candor and brilliance and lack of emotionality ("the exit sign is nearby"), that the reader is amazed. Did Lampedusa foretell his own end? Do the waters of life really seem to trickle, then rush, then pour out of our body in a torrent? And what are we to make of his observation that none of us would want to enter heaven wearing the faces we die with?
A true masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Belissimo
Review: Giuseppe di Lampedusa was himself a descendent of Sicilian royalty. Perhaps this is why his novel, the Leopard, comes across as genuine and authentic. This is the story of a Sicilian prince and his family during and after the unification of Italy in 1860. Di Lampedusa manages to weave together a multi-layered story of politics, history, and love with an ironic tone that lends credibility to his words. The leopard himself is an unlovable person but a lovable character. He is a calculating, pragmatic man who decides to embrace the new political landscape of a united Italian kingdom lest it succeed without his support.
Di Lampedusa's descriptions of Italy are delicious, and Archibald Colquhoun's translation from the Italian is flawless. In Sicily, the blazing sun reins more than any king, writes Di Lampedusa. Anyone who has stepped foot on the island knows how true this is. Through the courtship and marriage of a moneyless prince to a nouveau riche young woman from the countryside, the author hints at a new level of influence for the Sicilian Mafia in the mid-19th century. Various conversations throughout the novel depict Sicilians' mistrust of outsiders and offer various reasons - some more dubious than others - as to why Sicily will always remain Sicily, distinct and separate from the rest of Italy.
The Leopard is a fantastic novel. I recommend it to anyone who has been to Sicily, has an interest in the island, or simply enjoys top-notch literature.
Rating:
Summary: A great novel, beautifully written and very moving
Review: I approached The Leopard with high expectations which were thoroughly satisfied. The novel, apparently based on the life of di Lampedusa's great-grandfather, is the story of a proud, sensual, Sicilian aristocrat at the time of Italy's Risorgimento (1860 or thereabouts), and his reaction to the changes he sees in his society: mainly the inevitable, indeed necessary, but still in some ways regrettable displacement of the aristocracy from their traditional position. The title character is a wonderful creation, and the lesser characters about him (his wife and children, his favorite nephew, the Jesuit priest Father Pirrone, and so on), are also very elegantly depicted. The Sicilian countryside, and telling details of social life at that time period, are also fascinating elements of the book. And finally, the prose is wonderful, and this translation seems very good, save for just a couple mild moments of clunkiness.The Leopard is the story of Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, at the time of the main action a man in his forties, with several children. He is a sort of benevolent tyrant in his household, a man of a very old family, accustomed to knowing his place and to having those about him know their places. The Prince is also a man of great sensual appetites, careless with his money (though not wasteful or dissolute), politically knowledgeable but completely apolitical in action, and also an amateur astronomer of some note. When the story opens, the Risorgimento is ongoing, but it is clear that it will be ultimately successful, and that the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies will be absorbed into the newly unified, somewhat more democratic, Italy. Don Fabrizio, out of loyalty, is nominally supportive of the old regime, but he realistically stays out of the conflict. His favorite nephew, Tancredi, the penniless but charismatic son of his sister, is an ardent supporter of Garibaldi (leader of the revolution). Several long chapters, separated by months, follow the progress of the Risorgimento at a distance, and more closely follow events which impinge directly on Don Fabrizio's life, yet which reflect the coming societal changes. These include the plebiscite to confirm popular support for the unification of Italy, his nephew Tancredi's love affair and eventual marriage to the daughter of a wealthy but decidedly lower class neighbor, his daughter's reaction to the attentions of a friend of Tancredi's, and Father Pirrone's visit to his home village. Finally, the action jumps forward some decades to the Prince's death, in a very moving and beautiful chapter, then still further forward to the household of his unmarried daughters in their old age. The events of the story tellingly illustrate both the changing face of society and also the nature of Sicilian society in general. At another level, the Prince's aging and death, and his knowledge of his own mortality, echo the senescence of his class. Loving descriptions of the Prince's homes, of his meals, of balls, of hunting, of peasant life, of politics both at the Prince's level and at the level of the peasants, of the attitude of churchmen towards their flock (especially Father Pirrone's toleration but not approval of his friend's sensual escapades) are laced throughout the novel. Moreover, the Prince himself is a truly compelling, charismatic character, full of faults but an admirable man nonetheless. Also, the narrator's voice is often with us, ironically, often even cynically, commenting on the expectations of the characters and both their failings and the failings of "real life" to meet their expectations, but, though sad, the voice is never bitter.
Rating:
Summary: The Fall of the Leopards
Review: In The Leopard, Di Lampedusa masterfully narrates the downfall of an ancient aristocratic Sicilian family. We are introduced, among many others, to the paternalistic, intellectual Prince Fabrizio, his beloved but financially unendowed wit of a nephew Tancredi, Father Pirrone - a clement and practical reconciler and the Prince's ever-present conscience, and Don Sedara, a crass and uninitiated self-made landowner from the peasant class, whose beautiful daughter Tancredi falls for. The Leopard, a pithy and briskly-paced historical novel, opens for us the door into the world of an old Sicilian family and the patriarch who tries to maintain the rule of tradition in his beloved world under the backdrop of Garibaldi and the reunification of Italy. That the book is extremely well-written is evident even in the eloquent translation. The story, undulating the tone from the tender expressiveness of all that is dear and familiar to a man who loves his country and heritage, and the gentle sorrow attending the perception of forces that gradually efface the bonds that hold those things together. The chapter dealing with Don Fabrizio's declining health is an achievement in its own right, reflecting the organicity and artless sophistication of an experienced writer. It is to be read slowly, with sweet relish
Rating:
Summary: The Fall of the Leopards
Review: In The Leopard, Di Lampedusa masterfully narrates the downfall of an ancient aristocratic Sicilian family. We are introduced, among many others, to the paternalistic, intellectual Prince Fabrizio, his beloved but financially unendowed wit of a nephew Tancredi, Father Pirrone - a clement and practical reconciler and the Prince's ever-present conscience, and Don Sedara, a crass and uninitiated self-made landowner from the peasant class, whose beautiful daughter Tancredi falls for. The Leopard, a pithy and briskly-paced historical novel, opens for us the door into the world of an old Sicilian family and the patriarch who tries to maintain the rule of tradition in his beloved world under the backdrop of Garibaldi and the reunification of Italy. That the book is extremely well-written is evident even in the eloquent translation. The story, undulating the tone from the tender expressiveness of all that is dear and familiar to a man who loves his country and heritage, and the gentle sorrow attending the perception of forces that gradually efface the bonds that hold those things together. The chapter dealing with Don Fabrizio's declining health is an achievement in its own right, reflecting the organicity and artless sophistication of an experienced writer. It is to be read slowly, with sweet relish
Rating:
Summary: Sicilian doom
Review: Love. Of course, love. Flames for a year, ashes for thirty.
And what is time?, but worms building lovenests
in old furniture? And how is it possible to be angry
with anyone, we you know full well that also they
will soon be very dead.
And so it continues! This book is a spectacular read
of Sicilian gloom and doom. Poor Concetta never gets her
Tancredi, who marries beautiful, but bourgois, Angelica.
While Don Fabrizio sort of sees it as signs of the times
that his own daughter Concetta must a lost puppy in this
world.
Surely, Sicily 1860 - but somehow just as much humanity to
all times and in all places.
-Simon
Rating:
Summary: Vivid Imagery - Excellent Book
Review: The grace and power of this story could be quite overwhelming if it weren't for the cleverness we all adopt while reading it, so that at its end, we are neither shocked nor saddened, but rather challenged to take up our own pathetic cudgels and go at the world ourselves. Or not. A beautful tale.
Rating:
Summary: A Forgotten Classic??
Review: This is a wonderful historical novel/character study/satire of political "progress" that pays homage to Stendhal. Di Lampedusa's Don Fabrizio (based on the author's own great grandfather), Prince of Salina of Sicily, is an unforgettable character - full of himself and his pampered, aristocratic life, wiley and politically astute, lusty, yet loving, compassionate and melancholicly romantic. The history of the Italian Risorgimento is fascinating. It's a shame that this wonderful writer wrote so little before he died.
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