The Leopard

(Paperback)

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Description

In the dark heart of Sicily, Fabrizio, the formidable Prince of Salina, rules over his kingdom. Known as "The Leopard", his power extends from the opulent drawing rooms of Villa Salina to his vast acres of land, and some say even to the stars themselves.But in the year 1860 change is in the air. With Garibaldi's red shirts marching towards Palermo, and Fabrizio's own upstart nephew defecting to the cause, the family matriarch is faced with a choice. To hold on to the noble, crumbling institutions of old or welcome in a new ItalyExquisite in detail and told in a magisterial new translation, The Leopard is an ode to the last days of the Sicilian aristocracy, mercilessly capturing the decadence and decay of a social class faced with its own extinction.

Reviews

'Every once in a while, like certain golden moments of happiness, infinitely memorable, one stumbles on a book or writer, and the impact is like an indelible mark. Lampedusa's The Leopard, his only novel, and a masterpiece, is such a work' - Independent

'Perhaps the greatest novel of the century' - L. P. Hartley

'The poetry of Lampedusa's novel flows into the Sicilian countryside... a work of great artistry' - Peter Ackroyd

'It possesses the descriptive and analytical power not simply of one of the most beguiling 20th-century novels but one of the modern world's definitive political fictions' - Guardian

Author Bio

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957) was an Italian author, Duke of Palma, and last Prince of Lampedusa. He is most famous for his only novel, Il gattopardo, which was first published posthumously in 1958 and topped the bestseller lists internationally. Born to the Sicilian aristocracy at a time when his family's fortunes were in sharp decline, Lampedusa served as an artillery officer during World War I. A taciturn and solitary aristocrat, he devoted much of his time to books and was a prolific reader in several languages.