The Leopard
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (tr. from Italian by Archibald Colquhoun)
First Published 1958
Everyman's Library, New York
This edition published 1991
The novel relates a few years in the life of Don Fabrizio di Falconeri (known as the Leopard, because he looked like one, and his family coat of arms bore a leopard), a Sicilian Prince, who faces a rather rapid disintegration of the age-old feudal system after the 'risorgiomento' or revolution spearheaded by, among others, Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860.
The novel opens with Don Fabrizio at home in Palermo, Sicily, and establishes his status as a feudal lord. It also gives the political background, it being the time just after Garibaldi and the 1000 men fought their battles in Sicily in favour of a republican and united Italy. The novel then moves on to Donnafugata, a desperately poor village, near which the prince has his luxurious summer resort palace. The entire family moves there. We are made acquainted with Tancredi, a poor nephew of the prince, who has joined with Garibaldi but is still the Prince's favourite, even more than his own son. Tancredi is adored by the prince's daughter, he in turn falls in love with Angelica, the beautiful daughter of a nouveau riche minor official of the village, who is rapidly buying up the land of his 'betters', but is not able to rapidly enough change his manners and habits to be accepted easily as one of them. Nevertheless, Don Fabrizio is happy to give his consent to the wedding of Tancredi with Angelica who comes with a large dowry, thus retrieving, for the Prince's family, some of their lost wealth.
The rest of the novel is mainly descriptions of hunts and balls and parties, and at all these events we see a wearing away of the power and authority of the prince, and then the comeback of his family by making correct marriages, and practising correct politics. The last few chapters takes us a few decades forward and deals with the death of the prince, in unremarkable circumstances. The very last chapter is somewhat comic - the religious relics in the family chapel, looked after now by the princes's aged daughters, are assesed by the local prelate of the catholic church and shown to be mostly fake, fit to be only consigned to the rubbish heap.
The language is gripping and the story itself is so well written, it fully deserves its status as a classic. One other thing that struck me was the apparent continuation of the manners and habits (and names) of these feudal lords by the mafiosi, both as depicted in books like 'The Godfather' and as described in TV and newpaper reports of modern day happenings in Sicily and Italy.
Some quotes:
'The bonfires were stoked by men who were themselves very like those living in the monasteries below, as fanatical, as self-absorbed, as avid for power or rather for the idleness which was, for them, the pupose of power.'
'... the Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect; their vanity is stronger than their misery; every invasion by outsiders, whether so by origin, or, if Sicilian, by independence of spirit, upsets their illusion of achieved perfection, risks disturbing their satisfied waiting for nothing; having been trampled on by a dozen different peoples, they think they have an imperial past which gives them a right to a grand funeral.'
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (tr. from Italian by Archibald Colquhoun)
First Published 1958
Everyman's Library, New York
This edition published 1991
The novel relates a few years in the life of Don Fabrizio di Falconeri (known as the Leopard, because he looked like one, and his family coat of arms bore a leopard), a Sicilian Prince, who faces a rather rapid disintegration of the age-old feudal system after the 'risorgiomento' or revolution spearheaded by, among others, Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860.
The novel opens with Don Fabrizio at home in Palermo, Sicily, and establishes his status as a feudal lord. It also gives the political background, it being the time just after Garibaldi and the 1000 men fought their battles in Sicily in favour of a republican and united Italy. The novel then moves on to Donnafugata, a desperately poor village, near which the prince has his luxurious summer resort palace. The entire family moves there. We are made acquainted with Tancredi, a poor nephew of the prince, who has joined with Garibaldi but is still the Prince's favourite, even more than his own son. Tancredi is adored by the prince's daughter, he in turn falls in love with Angelica, the beautiful daughter of a nouveau riche minor official of the village, who is rapidly buying up the land of his 'betters', but is not able to rapidly enough change his manners and habits to be accepted easily as one of them. Nevertheless, Don Fabrizio is happy to give his consent to the wedding of Tancredi with Angelica who comes with a large dowry, thus retrieving, for the Prince's family, some of their lost wealth.
The rest of the novel is mainly descriptions of hunts and balls and parties, and at all these events we see a wearing away of the power and authority of the prince, and then the comeback of his family by making correct marriages, and practising correct politics. The last few chapters takes us a few decades forward and deals with the death of the prince, in unremarkable circumstances. The very last chapter is somewhat comic - the religious relics in the family chapel, looked after now by the princes's aged daughters, are assesed by the local prelate of the catholic church and shown to be mostly fake, fit to be only consigned to the rubbish heap.
The language is gripping and the story itself is so well written, it fully deserves its status as a classic. One other thing that struck me was the apparent continuation of the manners and habits (and names) of these feudal lords by the mafiosi, both as depicted in books like 'The Godfather' and as described in TV and newpaper reports of modern day happenings in Sicily and Italy.
Some quotes:
'The bonfires were stoked by men who were themselves very like those living in the monasteries below, as fanatical, as self-absorbed, as avid for power or rather for the idleness which was, for them, the pupose of power.'
'... the Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect; their vanity is stronger than their misery; every invasion by outsiders, whether so by origin, or, if Sicilian, by independence of spirit, upsets their illusion of achieved perfection, risks disturbing their satisfied waiting for nothing; having been trampled on by a dozen different peoples, they think they have an imperial past which gives them a right to a grand funeral.'
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