The Leopard

I was compelled to read Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's elegant novel, The Leopard (1959), after seeing Lucino Visconti's excellent film version of the novel. It was revealed in the extras that Visconti followed the novel very faithfully, but omitted some chapters for the film version. It is a novel that heralds the end of feudalism and the birth of a new Italy when Garibaldi and his forces land in Sicily and establish a new united Italy under the tricolor. The main protagonist, the Prince of Salina Don Fabrizio, is last of a fading generation that is giving way to more modern types like his beloved nephew Tancredi, whose union with the beautiful Angelica, who is not of the royal class, reflects the future of Italy. It is a grand, epic, poetic novel about a turning point in history in modern Europe.