Great literature but..
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The quality and of writing of "The Leopard" was, for me, perfect. And this bearing in mind it was a translation from Italian. With the exception of the recent nasty (American-English) trend of using "what" rather than "that which", it was English at its best. I would like to read it in Italian some day, but at my level, this would have been hard work. It was just a shame it was not longer. I could see the point of the 20 year gap in the story but it would have been so much more interesting if it had been a continuous story. However, bearing in mind that as one of the few that found "The Grapes of Wrath" one of the most disappointing books I ever read (talk about "The Kings New Clothes", I will never understand why everyone raves about the manufactured English and inconsistently story line), you might not agree with me.
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Unforgettable
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Incredibly atmospheric, beautifully written. The Prince and Tancredi especially are brilliant creations. This is a novel to savour.
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"All Will Be the Same Though All Will Be Changed"
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This novel contained historical background, a fascinating main character, a warm understanding of people and their frailties, a brooding acceptance of mortality, a nostalgia for old values and vanished beauty, an eye for class differences, a love of the land described, and several jarring but fascinating shifts forward in time. These elements, conveyed in a very smooth style in the translation, combined powerfully to make the novel moving and memorable.
Beyond that, having seen a film version some years ago, I couldn't help but picture Lancaster, Delon and Cardinale whenever their characters appeared on the page. In the meeting between the Prince and Don Calogero, in young lovers' exploration of the Salina palace at Donnafugata, in the interview between the Prince and the liberal representative from Piedmont, in the Ball at Palermo, and in the Prince's dying moments.
Could such a main character with keen historical awareness, a man able to think beyond the limitations of his class, ever have existed in life? Would the book's power have been even greater had it moved further beyond the perspective of the Prince and incorporated more of people like Tancredi and Angelica?
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Six stars
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There is little I can add to the excellent reviews here. The book encompasses 50 years in the life of a nineteenth century Sicilian aristocrat - a dying breed. It deals with corruption and encroaching death and loss in a decaying society. And it stays in your mind. One thing I would like to mention though is that the edition I have (Vintage, 2007) includes a foreword and afterword by the author's adopted son. I found the foreword and afterword so snobbish and pretentious that it made me - wrongly - think twice about the merits of the book as a whole. I notice that the Everyman Classics edition is quite reasonably priced. If you get the book and enjoy it you may well end up reading it several times, so a hardback would be a good investment. And I'd pay money to avoid the awful foreword and afterword in the Vintage edition.
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A very fine wine
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This is my favourite novel. Before I read this, if somebody had asked what the best-written novel was, I'd have said either The Great Gatsby or Brideshead Revisited. Now, I'd say The Leopard. Lampedusa's metaphors and similes are so beautiful and yet nobody would suggest that they are at all contrived. I have read that Lampedusa spent most of his life in reflection and it shows, for in this, his only novel, he displays a deep and profound knowledge of human beings and their vanity. `Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.' He was a 20th-century Montaigne. The plot is simple and yet it isn't. Read it and you'll see exactly what I mean.
The reviewer, who says this `leaves you feeling that you are a richer person for having read it,' is absolutely correct. Be warned however that you'll think of every book as an unworthy successor to this one. You'll feel you've been spoilt, having drunk a very fine wine, and everything else will seem like very cheap plonk.
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