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  • Published: 1 January 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099512158
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99

The Leopard

Revised and with new material




NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMATISATION FOR RADIO 4 - AVAILABLE ON BBC SOUNDS

This is the new, revised edition which includes recently discovered new material including letters and diary entries by the author and two additional sections of the novel.

The Leopard is a modern classic which tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution.

'There is a great feeling of opulence, decay, love and death about it' Rick Stein

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.

'Every once in a while, like certain golden moments of happiness, infinitely memorable, one stumbles on a book or a writer, and the impact is like an indelible mark. Lampedusa's The Leopard, his only novel, and a masterpiece, is such a work' Independent

INCLUDES RECENTLY DISCOVERED NEW MATERIAL

'Perhaps the greatest novel of the century' L.P. Hartley

'The poetry of Lampedusa's novel flows into the Sicilian countryside...a work of great artistry' Peter Ackroyd

  • Published: 1 January 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099512158
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was a Sicilian nobleman, Duke of Parma and Prince of Lampedusa. He was born in Palermo in 1896 and died in Rome in 1957. He lived the life of a literary dilettante, was familiar with the great literatures of the world, and was widely travelled. Much of Lampedusa's other work is collected in The Siren and Other Writings.

Praise for The Leopard

There is a great feeling of opulence, decay, love and death about it

Rick Stein

Every once in a while, like certain golden moments of happiness, infinitely memorable, one stumbles on a book or a writer, and the impact is like an indelible mark. Lampedusa's The Leopard, his only novel, and a masterpiece, is such a work

Independent

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

I was astounded by the power of the writing

Corin Redgrave

A great book

Observer

Few novels in the last ten years have given me so much enjoyment

Sunday Times

A novel of exceptional stature. One may claim for it classic status

Frank Kermode

A literary phenomenon on the grandest scale – a work of genius

Isabel Quigly

Sublime and sweet melancholy suffuses the story. Beautiful

Tim Waterstone, The Week

A delicate meditation on mortality, decay and the fading of beauty

Martin Sixsmith, The Week

Historical fiction at its best

Orlando Figes, The Week

No novel is perfect, but this small, wonderfully atmospheric and immensely poignant story...comes very close

Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2021*

Every once in a while, like certain golden moments of happiness, infinitely memorable, one stumbles on a book or a writer, and the impact is like an indelible mark. Lampedusa's The Leopard, his only novel, and a masterpiece, is such a work

Independent

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

I was astounded by the power of the writing

Corin Redgrave

A great book

Observer

Few novels in the last ten years have given me so much enjoyment

Sunday Times

A novel of exceptional stature. One may claim for it classic status

Frank Kermode

A literary phenomenon on the grandest scale – a work of genius

Isabel Quigly

There is a great feeling of opulence, decay, love and death about it

Rick Stein

Sublime and sweet melancholy suffuses the story. Beautiful

Tim Waterstone, The Week

A delicate meditation on mortality, decay and the fading of beauty

Martin Sixsmith, The Week

Historical fiction at its best

Orlando Figes, The Week

No novel is perfect, but this small, wonderfully atmospheric and immensely poignant story...comes very close

Sunday Times, *Summer Reads of 2021*