The Leopard: A Novel
by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
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Book Reviews of The Leopard: A Novel
Book Review: A Family and a Way of Life in Decline as the Modern State of Italy Emerges
Summary: 5 Stars
Little known but widely acclaimed by those aware of it, Giuseppe de Lampedusa's THE LEOPARD relates a classic end-of-an-era story. In this case, the locale is a fiercely independent Sicily, the era is the end of Italian aristocracy at the advent of democratization and national unification, and the eponymous protagonist is effectively the last Prince of the House of Salina, Don Fabrizio.
During the 1860's, Italy experienced the Risorgimento, a drive for unification that saw the defeat of the Bourbon states, the invasion by and defeat of Garibaldi, and the plebiscite that brought on a single Italy under Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, with Rome as the national capital, by 1870. THE LEOPARD is firmly set in this era of unrest and political change, in a Sicily that clung with quiet desperation to its old, traditional ways. Don Fabrizio is the model gentleman of his class, a book reader and amateur astronomer, a landed gentry with multiple residences and farms, modestly successful in his business affairs, ever in outward control of his emotions, exquisitely well-mannered, and a careful reader of the political winds. At the same time, he is also the perfect tragic hero, fully self-aware of his own failings and even more aware that the aristocratic era is rapidly drawing to a close. He has a son, Paolo, who is destined to oversee the inescapable decline in the family's fortunes, along with three daughters who will likely marry well and give birth to children who will endure a far different Sicilian life. Since he views his own children's abilities as lacking, he transfers his future hopes onto his dashing and clever nephew, Tancredi, a political chameleon deemed by all as destined for greatness.
The book's story lines are minimal. Tancredi appears at Don Fabrizio's home, striking hopes for a marital match in Fabrizio's daughter, Concetta. Her hopes are rudely crushed, however, when Angelica, the stunning daughter of the culturally unpolished but newly wealthy Don Calogero, appears. Tancredi goes off to fight Garibaldi's forces, later to return as a hero and aspiring politician who wins Angelica's hand in matrimony. The national plebiscite is held, and Don Fabrizio's district miraculously reports a unanimous vote in favor of the new government even though at least one person claims to have voted against. Asked not long after to join the new government's Senate, Don Fabrizio declines, arguing that the day has passed for his type of inherited aristocracy in favor of more modern and aggressive businessmen like Don Calogero.
The bulk of the story takes place between May 1860 and November 1862, a time period when Italy's new government comes into being and the House of Salina begins its inevitable slide. The book's final two chapters jump first to 1888 (with the self-explanatory title, "Death of a Prince" and then 1910 (with the equally revealing title, "Relics"), as the Don's three aged daughters and Angelica live out their final years even as the storms that will burst into World War I are gathering force. Both chapters are magnificent closings, the former addressing the final rest of a gentle hero, the latter presenting a scathing commentary on the decline of the family matriarchy and the manner in which their fears and superstitions are exploited by the Church.
THE LEOPARD presents the steady decline of Italian aristocracy through the Salina family. Lampedusa achieves this masterful depiction by confining himself to simple events - family dinners, travels to summer houses, a social dinner party - seen through the fatalistic eyes of Don Fabrizio. His views are inadvertently seconded by his constant companion of the Catholic Church, Father Pirrone, whose actions and attitudes mirror and subtly amplify the Prince's own. Despair and slow decay prevail in the author's choice of descriptive phrases that create a heavily freighted atmosphere. "In front of every house the refuse of squalid meals accumulated along leprous walls; trembling dogs were routing about with a greed that was always disappointed....Chevalley hoisted himself up onto the post carriage, propped on four wheels the color of vomit. The horse, all hunger and sores, began its long journey."
Lampedusa was a late-comer to novel writing, penning THE LEOPARD in his late fifties only to see it rejected for publication. He died in 1957, tragically just one year before his work was finally published in Italian and three years before its first English translation. The reward for his perseverance should be a well-deserved wide readership of a book that is historical in its context but timeless in its meaning.
Book Review: ASTOUNDING AND SUBLIME
Summary: 5 Stars
Guido Waldman's traslation of Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi's introduction is a boon for the literary scene. Lampedusa's nephew, runs a detailed history of the the novel's publication and more importantly here included are passages Lampedusa wrote for the book that were omitted by the original Italian editors and subsequent English versions.
To read Di Lampedusa in Italian is like reading Proust in French, which is to say it is characterized by a melodious dalliance that lulls and swells in dreamscapes of intellectual brilliance. Guido Waldman, whose efforts include the Oxford edition of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" (not an enviable task - imagine translating into a collected allegorical prose Spencer's "Faery Queen"), invariably paces the rhythm of the English in a comparable rendition, while attuning the lyricism in delicate cadances.
"The Leopard" represents a command of style and a robust poetic affluence that is exceptional. The vigour and audacity of the novel is never compromised throughout its scope and vision, and moreover it is persistently haunted by spectres of an apocalyptic doom loitering lustfully. To read this novel is to witness the expression of a community in distress as it finds itself fidgeting to keep its composure while arrested amidst a stalemate, as it were a cultural limbo. Giuseppe Di Lampedusa fashions a circumventing microcosmic portrait that is nostalgic and entertaining. Episodes of ribaldry abound yet they always steer clear of expressing disrespect for a tradition and a cultural milieu that preserves its ambiguity and its inconsolable propriety. The discomfort of the probing characters is strung and picked so as to strike a melodious ravishment that transgresses all values and disarms the structural apogee of the narrative. In its many particulars, and brusque, yet delicate lyrical tendencies, this novel gives delusional recordings of an island distant and beyond memory. Here we hear the tourbadour's chant nearing with incredulous apathy, both the harmony of a siren song and the discordant twang of a swan song lingering beyond the sheet-music read. It's as if a protracted melancholia overtook a whole culture and a poetic instinct becomes embalmed in its people. Sicilians have a heritage of millions of years which resonates throughout, and apologizing for my not being a Sicilian, I would suggest a visit to Siracusa, Palermo, Catania, or even off the coast to Taranto (Calabria) to remind us that the Odyssey's tales mostly take place in and around this island. Di Lampedusa is a classic man of letters, with an Odyssyan propensity for exploring the whims of human nature and exposing the forces that cross the devide that stands between loyalty and desire. I have found such a high quality of "delightful disturbance" only in a handful of artists - Primaraly in De Chirico's paintings, which parallels astoundingly well alongside any reading of "Il Gattopardo". In literature one may well liken Di Lampedusa to the late Thomas Mann (esp. "The Magic Mountain"). In "The Leopard" a uniique stunning clarity pervades. Stunning for the acceptance of its fading way of life consacrating a culture in decadence; while the clarity of classical beauty is flawlessly contained. It is impossibly beautiful and sublime. Here Di Lampedusa conspires to invite us on a voyage with sails withdrawn, impressively seized within a standstill. Chimed from afar floats a decadent sweltering heat, while basking underneath is found the novel's storyline. Please plug your ears, or have someone tie you to something or other, else would that you were to tune in you'd never leave: In blissfull obliviousness you'd perish along this shoreline! Hereby the island's lure is a felicitous narrative that speaks fables of yesterday in daring, lingering overtones, consonant with the cunning splendid mirage of sex appeal.... And an applause to Guido Waldman, who deserves unrestrained praise for his labours as they shall now translate into our delights, adding considerably to the overall excellence of Archibald Colquhoun's translation, the novel has reached the shores of its definitive version.
Book Review: A Real Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
That the Leopard is a great work of literature -- or as E. Said terms it, a great "late work" -- is now undisputed. This status is made all the more remarkable and poignant by the Leopard being Lampedusa's first novel and only being published posthumously.
I have read three versions of the Leopard: the hardcover (Everyman's Library), a earlier paperback version (Pantheon, Jul 23, 1991) and this recent paperback release (November 6, 2007). All these versions include translations by Archibald Colquhoun, but the translation presented in the hardcover differs from the paper versions'. Because of the use of such British spellings "colour" in the hardcover, that translation may be from a British market version.
In fact, however, the differences in the translations involve more than such simple substitutions. In the critical last paragraph for example, the differences are arguably substantive: "As the carcass was dragged off, the glass eyes stared at her with the humble reproach of things that are discarded in hope of final riddance..." (Everyman's Library) versus "As the carcass was dragged off, the glass eyes stared at her with the humble reproach of things that are thrown away, that are being annulled" (paperbacks.) A central concern of this last chapter is the notion of that which was once treated as sacred, "relics," having their status invalidated, the objects being shown not to be what they were once held to be -- examples include the sisters' religious artifacts being disqualified as relics by Church representatives and the remains of the faithful Bendico being shown not to stand for what the Prince's daughter, Concetta had long believed. Thus the word "annulled" including its flavor of an acknowledgment that an apparent status was actually never valid, never really was, would seem more evocative. Examples of differences in the translations such as this arise in a number of important parts of the story.
Finally, this latest paper version offers a valuable bonus, a set of excerpts from Lampdusa's correspondence relating to the Leopard which contain a set of interesting revelations including, for example, Lampedusa's identification of the importance of the Prince's dog Bendico in the story.
Book Review: Machiavellian
Summary: 4 Stars
Can a leopard change its spots?
If the leopard in question is Don Fabrizio, the eponymous leopard of our novel, his oft quoted answer forms the basis for a grand tale. Quote The Leopard: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
Listed among the great novels of the twentieth century, the book takes place in 1860 Sicily. It is a time of great geopolitical changes. America is involved in a cruel and bloody civil war. Asia has retreated into isolationism and Europe is again redrawing national boundaries from previous wars while preparing for new ones. In Italy, or what is to become Italy, the force of Garibaldi's red shirts lends credibility to the diplomacy of Manzini and Cavour. The combination proves successful in uniting the country for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire.
Amidst the turmoil stalks Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina. His banner carries the image of a leopard. Like his namesake, Fabrizio is cunning and stealthy. An aristocrat with knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, he faces a changing word with limited treasure and no army, his power derives from his ability to make alliances with the right people at the right time. As the story unfolds, we are witness to the maneuverings of a master at work. Here, he plays the aloof scientist; there, he is the avuncular head of an extended family. His roles are as varied as his responses to shifting currents. The more things change, the more Machiavellian he becomes. In the end, he proves to be a rock solid Prince but a disappointment as father and husband.
Book Review: Sun-baked Sicilian still life
Summary: 4 Stars
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.