The Leopard -- Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Paperback

Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.

Although Giuseppe di Lampedusa had long had the book in mind, he began writing it only in his late fifties; he died at age sixty, soon after the manuscript was rejected as unpublishable. In his introduction, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Lampedusa's nephew, gives us a detailed history of the initial publication and the various editions that followed. And he includes passages Lampedusa wrote for the book that were omitted by the original Italian editors.

Here, finally, is the definitive edition of this brilliant and timeless novel.

(Translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun.)

Author: Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 11/06/2007
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780375714795

Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 07/05/2013 pg. 103

About the Author

GIUSEPPE DI LAMPEDUSA was born in Sicily in 1896 and died in 1957. The Leopard was his only novel.