The Leopard: A Novel
by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
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Book Reviews of The Leopard: A Novel
Book Review: Breathtaking
Summary: 5 Stars
The Leopard is set in Sicily in the 1860's, around the time a united Italy was formed. The plot involves events in the lives of Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, and his family, set against a backdrop of revolution and the collapse of the old aristocracy. I read this in translation so my comments reflect that rather than the original Italian but the language is breathtaking. When Fabrizio walks into a room in the palace, the reader follows his eyes as they take in every detail and hear his reflections on the history of the objects there. There is such a strong sense of place. I was fascinated with his description of the Sicilian character. When a representative of the new national government asks him to join the Senate, describing all the improvements that will be coming to Sicily, Fabrizio declines, explaining that Sicilians don't want improvements. "They are coming to teach us good manners...But they won't succeed because we think we are gods." The story of his family is simple: love, marriage, jealousy, death, all seen through the old man's eyes and filtered through his understanding of the collapse around him. This is a marvelous book.Book Review: Some good insights, slow book
Summary: 3 Stars
Published in 1958, this book has been hailed as a masterpiece of Italian literature. Perhaps it is just that, and I found it did have some rewarding points (good insights into the culture and history of Sicily, some flesh-and-blood characters, an occasional winning plot moment), but all in all I found it slow-going. At points it even dragged, leaving me bored. It might have helped if I'd had more knowledge of Italian history going into the book, but still, when I consider that "The Godfather" was written only a decade after this, and was simply a better story from almost every conceivable angle (more interesting, quicker paced, more accessible, better use of language, richer characters, a multifaceted storyline), I just can't feel "The Leopard" was fantastic literature.
And who ultimately decides what is great literature? Sometimes I think it is stuffy, arrogant old men in back rooms somewhere who are proud of their advanced university degrees and their dusty libraries in dead languages.
To me, I just prefer a tale spun by a master storyteller. And to me, this weren't it!
Book Review: An Italian historical Romance?
Summary: 4 Stars
In a lot of ways this novel written in 1958 reads like Jane Austin
for me: the manners are of another time
and the customs are very much Latin.
It there a hidden policy here or just a comment on the changing of times? About the changing of the guard he say:" ... that process of continual refining which in the course of three generations transforms innocent peasants into defenseless gentry." The Leopard is the symbol of the family coat of arms in which we are told that old families transform in a romance of manners to the tune of the times. We get to the end and find it was all supposed to be about the nephew Tancredi, Concetta and the vulgar new princess Angelica. The loss of fortunes on the
whim of a minute or the romance of new times, who can say.
Why was it published in the early newer era of Europe?
Book Review: The Leopard
Summary: 5 Stars
The Leopard: A Novel is the only novel written by this author and was published posthumously. It is beautifully written and full of insights about the people and society of the period.
The author was a relative of the main character, a noble who is losing out to the emerging bourgeoisie in Italy at the time. It's a portrait of both the selfishness and acceptance of a dying class. While I had little sympathy for the characters, I felt the author provided a realistic portrait of a society at a time of change. I recommend this to history buffs as well as people who like to understand the psychology and mindset of distant times. There are still many relevant comments and insights for today's world.
Book Review: One of the most beautiful novel ever written
Summary: 5 Stars
The novel focus on the figure of a Sicilian Prince and the sociatal changes during the historical Italian period called the Risorgimento.
Italy was going to be unified and the Kingdom to whom Prince Fabrizio, and his world, belonged to be changed for ever.
The Prince pessimistically sees the inevitable changes as negative. A new class is arising and not necesserly better than the one disappearing.
The Prince believes that the voracious appetite for money, power and status of the new class will erode inevitably the values he believes in.
He refuses the offered Senator seat at the Italian Parliament. He requests that it is given to a rich member of the Sicilian bourgesie as a symbolic passage of power to the new arising class.