I would like to spend a couple weeks as the Prince's guest in the Donafugatta Palace - or hell, any of his other villas - I don't care! Although his way of life was ending, I'd like to have been in on it before the last gasp. It sounded very leisurely and attractive.
It put me in mind of Chekhov. The end of an era and so on.
I thought Lampedusa's narrative voice somewhat wrenching and intrusive at times with his unexpected and out of sync tidbits of information about how things present in the 1860's narrative were to change or be affected in the 20th century. An unusual and disruptive authorial decision. But a very enjoyable, and informative experience about the Risorgimento and Garibaldi episode in Sicilian history. ( )

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. ( )

This book was recommended – handed, actually - to me by a bloke in Oxfam, during an otherwise fruitless browse of their bookshelves. Being too polite (and curious) to dismiss someone’s reading recommendation when the book in question was only 79 shiny pence, I did my bit for charity and bought the proffered copy and the unmistakable aroma of other people’s houses that came with it. However, not having a clue what it was about, once home, it took a long time for it to work its way up from the bottom of my pile o’ books, and it was almost six months after Mr. Random Gent bestowed his blessing upon it that I heaved the sigh one reserves for books one doesn’t expect to get into, and got down to it.

The Leopard is a rare creature (on my bookshelves, at least); Sicilian historical fiction. It chronicles the fortunes of the Prince of Salina’s family, their romances, distractions and exquisitely ordered lives during the Italian Unification, particularly those of the principal character, Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, mathematician and astronomer, as he comes to understand what current events mean for the future of the aristocracy and his family.

Despite a tendency towards the depressive, this is a rather beautiful book… I might be biased after encountering the word ‘Squirearchy’, but translated or not, the writing brings perfectly into mind the elegance, ostentation, and fragility of the Salina family’s world. It is full of sad, warm affection, set perfectly against the cool march of history.

Definitely worth reading. My thanks to the nice man in Oxfam. (I hope your daughter enjoyed playing with her Barbie horse). ( )

I think this may be the nearest thing to a perrfect novel. It's set in Sicily around the time of the '100 days' - the beginning of Garibaldi's campaign to unite Italy (and extend the franchise along the way). The central character is an aging aristocrat. He is at once admirable, contemptible and pitiable. He is more aware than his peers that the power of his class is crumbling, along with his own previously formidable powers. His loyalty - to his family, his class, and a king whom he personally despises - dominates his actions, even while he knows the inevitability of failure. Yet his personal relations with his family are distant.
The book is a great work of art. Much is understated, implied, ambiguous. The revolution has bittersweet consequences: it is obvious what was gained, but something was lost (the author was also a count). So much is said in so few words. Occasionally the peaks of human artistry inspire awe: how can a person do this? This is such a peak.

This was a ghostly story. I was never sure how real the characters were; it verged on magical realism. It is hard for 21st Americans to understand the sense of loss experienced by aristocratic families as the times made their way of life superfluous. But living in a time of rapid change, as we do now, it is something we should be sympathetic to, even if we think it needed to happen. ( )