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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: 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.
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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.
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Summary: Flesh and blood behind 19th century Italian history
Review: Anyone even remotely interested in modern Italian history will devour this beautifully rendered book. It puts a flesh and blood face on the Sicilians of the Resorgimento era ,aristocracy, clergy and common folk alike. After having recently read Christopher Hibbert's excellent biography of Garibaldi, The Leopard was the catalyst that breathed life into the people of 1860's Italy.
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Summary: 19th-century italian soap
Review: despite some well-written passages, i would expect a setting and era as interesting and potentially fertile as these to dish up a meatier tale. But the "leopard," as narrator, lacks the teeth for the job. Between monitoring his family's ongoing love affairs and gazing at the stars, he's no better informed on the times than we as readers end up being by the final page.
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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.
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Summary: Pure grace
Review: Don Fabrizio is among the most likeable, hubris-ridden characters in literature. Getting to watch the prince grow old with such grace, to follow two love-sick kids as they chase one another through unused palacial rooms, to hear revolution in the distance - these are extraordinary literary experiences that elude sappy sentimentality and escape regional borders. The unified Italian flag rises slowly throughout the book but, at it's deepest point, the novel has no nationality ... hmm; it sounds like I'm descending into sappy sentimentality. In that case, listen to all those brilliant folks hiding out in talk-show audiences when they say, dump this zero - me - and get yourself a hero - Don Fabrizio ... Kick this blurb to the curb and get yourself a real writer (Lampedusa); Truly, this novel's dividends are incalculable.
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Summary: An Italian Masterpiece...Timeless and Unforgettable
Review: For me, THE LEOPARD is definitely the greatest book to come out of Italy...so far...as well as being one of the ten greatest books ever written.Everything about THE LEOPARD is perfect. The title character, Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina (based on di Lampedusa's great-grandfather) is one of the most perfectly drawn characters in all of literature. We shouldn't like him (after all, he is proud, he is sensual, he is dissolute, he is autocratic), but we do. We like him, in great part, because di Lampedusa has let us understand him. We feel his melancholia, his fear, his pain, his regret. THE LEOPARD is set in 1860, in the Sicily of the Risorgimento. Although Don Fabrizio knows that Garibaldi and his forces will eventually be triumphant, he still mourns the passing of the old ways and the absorption of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily and Naples) into one unified Italy. Politically conservative, almost fatalistic, Don Fabrizio is a character in stark contrast to his Garabaldi supporting nephew, Tancredi. And, by the way, this isn't a novel in which Garabaldi is directly present. The battles, the marches, the protests, like Garabaldi, are only alluded to. This is Don Fabrizio's story and Don Fabrizio's book. Rather than tell us of Garabaldi directly, di Lampedusa chose to detail a fascinating and dying way of life through the eyes of an equally fascinating and dying character. In detailing the decay of Don Fabrizio's life as well as his way of life, THE LEOPARD details the progress of the Risorgimento. Itlay is changing; Sicily is changing. The old way of life is passing away and Don Fabrizio doesn't like it, but what can he do? The nature of life, he knows, is change and no one, not even Don Fabrizio, can change the nature of life. As Don Fabrizio ages and moves toward death, so does the Sicilian aristocracy. This causes THE LEOPARD to be a very sad, but a very moving, book. THE LEOPARD is filled with detail of a way of life that flourished when Don Fabrizio was young and is dying just as he is dying. The pictures we're treated to of lavish meals, lavish balls, political strife and religious beliefs (the latter told mostly from the viewpoint of the character of Father Pirrone) really give us a glimpse into life in "old" Sicily and it's a glimpse so fascinating I could barely put the book down...even to sleep. The ball scene is especially vivid and filled with detail, but other details, just as important, can be found interspersed throughout the book. THE LEOPARD is a slow paced novel, with not a great deal of plot and many long, lyrical and meditative passages. I thought this style of writing fit the book perfectly, but readers who needs something faster paced with a more convoluted plot might not like this book, as wonderful and timeless as it is. This is also a very sensual novel. We can really feel the sunburnt landscape of Sicily, the ruins, the decay of the palazzos, the confection of the pasticceria. The book ends on the same sad and meditative note on which it began...with a beautiful and very emotionally moving chapter that details the death of Don Fabrizio, just as the "old" Sicily of his youth is also dying. THE LEOPARD is essential reading for anyone who is serious about great literature and also for anyone who wants to understand Italy, especially Sicily. This sunburnt island is a place of desolation, decay, death and sadness and di Lampedusa has managed to capture it all perfectly in this extraordinary and timeless masterpiece.
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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.
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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.
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