About this title: Lampedusa's masterpiece, one of the finest works of twentieth century fiction, is set amongst an aristocratic family, facing social and political changes in the wake of Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily in 1860. At the head of the family is the prince, Don Fabrizio. Proud and stubborn, he is accustomed to knowing his own place in the world and expects his household to run accordingly. He is aware of the changes which are rapidly making men historically obsolete but he remains attached to the old ways. His favourite nephew, Tancredi, may be an ardent supporter of Garibaldi and may later marry ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Paperback First Ed.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Signet
Date Published: 191961
Description: Poor. Chpped at top and bottom of spine, light edge wear, darkened in spots. a piece missing at edge of page 269. a few words affected. readers copy. intact but has been reglued. 2.2.9. read more
Description: Good. 1991-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780679731214ISBN:0679731210
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. sparse underlines and owner notes o/w VG. Text in English, Italian. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Pantheon
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780679731214ISBN:0679731210
Description: Very Good. Nearly new with just a few dog eared pages, square, solidly bound, and has a cover as lustrous as ever--you'll weep for joy when this book arrives! ! ! read more
Edition: Edition Unstated
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Pantheon Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780679731214ISBN:0679731210
Description: Very Good- As issued No Jacket. Slight spine lean, corner bumps, the covers curl up some, a gift inscription on the inside cover, and other light shopwear. Text is clean. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Pantheon Books, Inc., New York
Date Published: 1960
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight, pages clean/ covers scuffed, moderate edge wear/ corners and spine bumped/ previous bookstore price written in black marker on front cover/ slight soiling on page edges/ readers slant/ newspaper book review glued inside back cover read more
"What can you say about a book that is an acknowledged masterpiece? It is beautiful, terribly sad, frequently amusing (in a sly kind of way)...not a book to read if you're looking for an upper, though. Apparently it also made a lovely film, but I haven't seen it so I can't add my two bits on that.
The Leopard tells the story of the dying days of the Sicilian nobility, during and after the 1860 revolution, led by Garibaldi, that resulted in a unified Italy under King Victor Emmanuel. The main character is the Prince, Don Fabrizio, a Sicilian nobleman, who reflects on the changes to his country and way of life, while negotiating the rise of a new and increasingly wealthy middle class and the corresponding decrease in the fortunes and status of his own family. The novel seems to be about betrayals (personal and state), the sadness of things ending, the feeling that lives have been wasted, mortality, yet this is all presented gently and eloqently, so the the sadness steals over you while you think you are just enjoying the language.
I do wish I could read Italian, so I could read the original and then compare it to this translation. I wonder how different they are? It must be like writing a whole new book...well, kudos to Archibald Colquhuon (the translator), kudos. I remember being disappointed with Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, because I thought the writing would be more beautiful than it was - it felt kind of clunky, and I wondered if the original Italian novel was more lyrical and poetical, or if Eco just wasn't a poetical kind of guy. No such worries here, though."
"Many have claimed that 'The Leopard' is the perfect novel. Not quite, in my humble opinion, but definitely a work of art.
Beginning in 1860 as Sicily is being annexed as a state of Italy, Prince Fabrizio watches his beloved island change and more importantly stay the same, over the course of 20 years. This is an incredibly well written book, so well written my chest welled up hurting a little over a brilliant sentence, like hills looking flaccid like breasts with no milk. The words, sentences, paragraphs, characters, similes, images melded together perfectly. They created, smell, texture, noise, colour, heat, and passion.
But this was not the perfect novel for me. Reading the Leopard I got the instinct impression I was on the outside looking in, not engrossed within the story, under its skin. In many ways it was looking as a painting. No doubt a master piece, like Titian, the way he could make colours meld together made angels sing, or looking at Michoangleo's David, the mussels are sculptured in a way that makes it look like he will walk out the door. But with art you are an observer, and with 'The Leopard', you are an observer. I was not sitting down at the table to eat Macaroni Pie with the characters I was looking over the balcony admiring the skill at which they did it.
If I could have lived underneath the skin of 'The Leopard' instead of admiring the genesis of di Lampedusa, this would have been the perfect novel. Close but no cigar."
"A very different pleasure than I expected after having seen Visconti's film version. The Prince, Don Fabrizio, is a different character than what I got from Lancaster. Not to slight Lancaster's portrayal; the prince of the book is a very internal man, prone to let silences exist while the page fills with his observations and deductions. To be simplistic in my analysis of metaphor / metonymy, he's similar to the vacated back rooms of his palaces - spaces become dormant, a state of preserved decay, communicative only to those that have traveled the same path, of the same caste.
Too little time to really analyze or formally review. In short, the book is beautifully written, closely observed, humorous, a successful detailing of a peculiarly southern Italian character through a character study. A couple passages I like, randomly chosen from many that were worthy:
"The rains had come, the rains had gone, and the sun was back on its throne like an absolute monarch kept off it for a week by his subjects barricades, and now reigning once again, choleric but under constitutional restraint. The heat braced without burning, the light domineered but let colors live; from the soil cautiously sprouted clover and mint, and on faces appeared diffident hopes."
Sicily and Sicilian-ness ring true through the musings on sun and lassitude.
"At this point calm descended on Don Fabrizio, who had finally solved the enigma; now he knew who had been killed at Donnafugata, at a hundred other places, in the course of that night of dirty wind: a new born babe: good faith; just the very child who should have been cared for most, whose strengthening would have justified all the silly vandalisms."
The more things change, the more they MUST change, the more they stay the same ... perhaps the central theme of the book. The Sicilian, or the Neapolitan or the Piedmontese, can no more change than (easy analogue here) the leopard spots move.
"The perfect book to read on a trip to Naples or Sicily, as it's about both. Even more perfect for my trip to both places. It was really need to read about the protagonist doing something in, say, Palermo, and then go to that place. The best part was when we decided to head for Lampedusa's family's summer home town, and an old man in a park randomly offered to give us a tour of the family palazzo, which he happened to be the caretaker of (no joking--the place was a closed city museum with all this Lampedusa stuff inside). An intruiging book in its own right about politics and revolution in the time between royal courts and a united Italy; family rivalry and marriage; and aging and legacies. Highly recommended!"
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