The Leopard
The Leopard is a novel by Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the leading Italian publishing houses Mondadori and Einaudi, it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. In 1959, it won Italy's highest award for fiction, the Strega Prize. In 2012, The Guardian named it as one of "the 10 best historical novels". The novel was made into an award-winning 1963 film of the same name, directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon.
Lampedusa was the last generation of an old princely family of Sicily. He had long contemplated writing a historical novel based on his great-grandfather, Don Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi, another Prince of Lampedusa.
Origins
Although Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was an avid reader, until the last few years of his life he had written almost nothing for publication. He first conceived the book that became The Leopard in the 1930s but did not follow through on the idea at that time. According to Tomasi's widow, Tomasi first conceived the novel as a story to take place over the course of one day in 1860, similar to James Joyce's modernist 1922 novel Ulysses. In the end, only the first chapter conformed to this plan.In 1954 Tomasi traveled with his cousin Lucio Piccolo, another late-in-life author, to a literary conference in San Pellegrino Terme. Piccolo had been invited on the basis of his recently published poetry, and brought Tomasi as a guest. Also attending were Eugenio Montale, and Emilio Cecchi, Shortly after this, he began writing; as he wrote in 1955, "Being mathematically certain that I was no more foolish , I sat down at my desk and wrote a novel."
By June 1955 he completed a version of the first chapter, conforming to his original intention of a story set in a single 24-hour period in 1860. At this time, few people around him were aware that he was writing: he had always spent large amounts of time alone; those periods were now spent at his writing desk. He finally showed a four-chapter work in progress to close associates in early 1956, corresponding roughly to the first, second, seventh, and eight chapters of the eventual novel.
In May 1956, Tomasi sent a four-chapter typescript to Mondadori in Milan. That summer he wrote two more chapters and in October he sent these to Mondadori as well. Mondadori rejected the novel in December 1956, although their rejection left open the possibility of considering a future version of the same work. In early 1957 he wrote two more chapters, revised those he had already written, and sent typescripts to several people. With Tomasi's permission, his student Francesco Orlando sent a copy to literary agent, daughter of Benedetto Croce, leaving the author anonymous. Another recipient, bookseller and publisher Fausto Flaccovio, liked the book but was not in the business of publishing fiction; he suggested sending it to Elio Vittorini; unsurprisingly, this rather traditional novel did not appeal to modernist Vittorini, who found it "rather old-fashioned" and "essayish".
Eventually, the copy sent to Croce bore fruit, but not in Tomasi's lifetime. In 1957, he was diagnosed with lung cancer; he died on 23 July 1957 in Rome. Elena Croce sent the manuscript to the writer Giorgio Bassani, who brought it to the publisher Feltrinelli. On 3 March 1958, Feltrinelli contacted Tomasi di Lampedusa's widow to make arrangements to publish the novel. It was published in November 1958 and became a bestseller, going through 52 editions in less than six months. Il Gattopardo was quickly recognized as a great work of Italian literature. In 1959 Tomasi di Lampedusa was posthumously awarded the prestigious Strega Prize for the novel. However, the application was much discussed by the literary people of that time such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alberto Moravia who considered the novel too conservative. When Mario Soldati called Maria Bellonci to submit Il Gattopardo to the competition, his friend Moravia told him:"I will never look you in the face again".
Plot
Most of the novel is set during the time of the Risorgimento, specifically during the period when Giuseppe Garibaldi, the leader of the famous Redshirts, swept through Sicily with his proletarian army known as The Thousand. The novel does not follow a conventional chronological order, with chapters taking place weeks, months, or even decades apart from each other.Chapter 1: 'Introduction to the Prince'
As the novel opens in May 1860, Garibaldi's Redshirts have landed on the Sicilian coast and are pressing inland; they will soon overthrow the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and incorporate it into the unified Italian Kingdom under Victor Emmanuel. The plot revolves around the aristocratic Salina family, headed by Fabrizio Corbèra, Prince of Salina. In the first chapter, they are in Palermo.- The Prince
- The dead soldier
- Audience with the king
- Dinner
- Visit to Mariannina
- Tancredi
- Ferrara and Russo
- In the observatory
- Lunch
- Audience with tenants
- Paolo
- The Prince
The chapter begins and ends with the Prince, as the patriarch, leading his family in the Roman Catholic ritual of Rosary. The images of the sacred are connected with the profane, with Mary Magdalene presented as a blushing and attractive prostitute. The frescoes of Grecoroman deities support the crest of the House of Salina, expressing the notion of aristocracy as divinely ordained.
1,12: The Prince's contemplations
2,11: the dead soldier, Paolo
Throughout the novel, the relationship between Europe and Italy, or even the rest of Italy and Sicily, is negatively compared. The Prince takes a stroll in his garden, where the imported French roses are hideously malformed by the tropical heat. The Prince remembers the corpse of a dead soldier, a young boy who came to the garden to die after sustaining wounds from an ill-fated battle. Undiscovered for a period of time, the odour of the decomposing body drifted through the garden and the house. If understood through the chiastic structure, Paolo, the Prince's son and heir, is compared to the wretched soldier, foreshadowing his later fate.
3,10: Audience with the king, audience with tenants
4,9: Dinner, lunch
5,8: Visit to Mariannina, In the observatory
6,7: Tancredi, Ferrara & Russo
Fabrizio finds marriage with his puritannical wife to be physically unsatisfying, and thus keeps a series of mistresses and courtesans. He indulges in his hobby of amateur astronomy, as well as hunting with his beloved Great Dane, Bendico. He is drawn to his nephew Prince Tancredi Falconeri, whom he views as a true successor who shares his noble discernment and qualities, vastly preferring him to his son and heir, Paolo, a nonentity whose main concern are horses. Later, he discovers that Tancredi has joined Garibaldi's Redshirts.
Chapter 2: 'Donnafugata'
The Salina family visits their estate in Donnafugata. During the journey, clouds of white dust envelope the family at a resting place, symbolising the unrest and disorder that will follow. Upon arrival in Donnafugata, they are greeted by raucous, provincial fanfare. The Prince, visibly relieved at the fervent worship of the peasants and the reassurance of his dominant position, inadvertently loses respect by disrupting the detached and impassive image of a feudal lord.The Prince learns that the mayor, Don Calogero Sedara, has become wealthy through dubious business transactions and political influence, which are implied to be at the expense of nobility ruined by recent conflicts. His wealth now rivals that of the Salinas. The Prince hosts a dinner for significant persons in Donnafugata, and after deliberation, wears afternoon evening dress as a mark of condescension. When Sedara arrives in evening tails, the Prince is betrayed and alarmed by this aesthetic subterfuge. Sedara introduces his extraordinarily beautiful daughter, Angelica, who amplifies the effect of this aesthetic subversion. Viewed through the objectifying eyes of the male onlookers, Angelica is lexically compared to the sumptuous culinary delights that populate the dinner table. Concetta, the Prince's daughter, is posited as Angelica's rival in love, as she is romantically attached to Tancredi. Tancredi, smitten with Angelica, is snubbed by Concetta and becomes entangled with Angelica.
Chapter 3: 'The Troubles of Don Fabrizio'
Although aware of his daughter's feelings, the Prince accepts the inevitable and helps arrange Tancredi's betrothal to Angelica. While negotiating the dowry, the Prince attempts to assert the dominance of the nobility through empty references to the grandeur of the Falconeri legacy. However, it becomes increasingly obvious that the opposite is true, as Don Sedara's wealth and promises of dowry eclipse the wasted Falconeri nobility, indicating the tides of change as the bourgeoisie middle-class outmanoeuvers and seduce the nobility in the emerging society.Chapter 4: 'Love at Donnafugata'
The two have a blissful period of engagement, belying the implied tumultuous years ahead. Within the grand palace, with abandoned and unknown departments, the two lovers venture forth and engage in games of hide and seek. The sensuality, that is never realised, forms the basis of their strong feelings of love, juxtaposed with the omniscient narrative voice that explicates their unhappy marriage in the years ahead.Later, Fabrizio is offered the position of a senator in the new Italian state but turns it down.