The Leopard — Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Condition : Good.
Reprint Society, 1961, Vintage Hardback with removable protective plastic wrap – Modern Classics – 223pp.Copies are becoming increasingly difficult to locate, particularly in nice, clean condition.

The author’s only novel, written towards the end of his life and based in part on his own royal background (he was Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa) was published posthumously and became a critical and popular success.

In the spring of 1860, Fabrizio, the charismatic Prince of Salina, still rules over thousands of acres and hundreds of people, including his own numerous family, in mingled splendour and squalor. Then comes Garibaldi’s landing in Sicily and the Prince must decide whether to resist the forces of change or come to terms with them.
Since its somewhat frosty reception on first publication, ‘The Leopard’ has gathered increasing critical acclaim, notably by E.M. Forster. It is the highest selling novel in Italian history and in 2012 was named by ‘The Observer’ as one of the ten best historical novels of all time.

There is a great feeling of opulence, decay, love and death about it — Rick Stein
Perhaps the greatest novel of the century — L.P. Hartley
One of the great lonely books…not a historical novel, but a novel which happens to take place in history — E.M. Forster
The poetry of Lampedusa’s novel flows into the Sicilian countryside…a work of great artistry — Peter Ackroyd.

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