"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) is a historical novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published in 1958.
The novel follows a Sicilian noble family, the House of Salina, as they attempt to navigate a changing world and their own declining influence. The novel opens in May 1860, as Sicily faces The Expedition of the Thousand, and continues through the period of the Risorgimento, when the various nations of the Italian peninsula were united, with varying degrees of willingness, into the Kingdom of Italy. The central figure of the novel is the family patriarch, Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina; another important character is his favourite nephew, Tancredi Falconeri.
The novel was adapted into a 1963 film, The Leopard.
This novel contains examples of:
- Animal Motifs:
- The Italian word "Gattopardo" includes several animals from the Big Cat family. The book's author, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, an actual Sicilian aristocrat, based it on his family's coat-of-arms, which is technically the lesser known Serval. It is usually translated into English as "The Leopard", and in some other languages as "The Cheetah". Don Fabrizio himself is frequently associated with the leopard (or whatever it is), due to his physical presence as much as his heritage. At one point, reflecting on the rising power of the lower classes, he thinks to himself that jackals and hyaenas are taking the place of leopards and lions.
- Don Fabrizio's beloved dog Bendico is, the author wrote to a friend, "a vitally important character and practically the key to the novel". His fortunes reflect those of the family; in the Distant Finale, when Fabrizio and Bendico are both long dead, Bendico's taxidermied remains are kept by the current head of the family as a reminder of happier times, until at the very end of the novel they are thrown away.
- Big Labyrinthine Building: Donnafugata Palazzo has many abandoned rooms; Don Fabrizio expresses an opinion that a building so paltry that the owner knows every room in it is a building not worth living in. During their engagement, Angelica and Tancredi frequently spend time exploring the disused parts of the Palazzo as an excuse to spend time together and, whenever possible, to lose their chaperone for a while.
- Dances and Balls: Section VI of the novel is set at the ball where Tancredi's fiancee Angelica (and her Nouveau Riche father) are launched into society. Don Fabrizio wanders around observing the various classes of people present and reflecting on how times have changed and will continue to change.
- Distant Finale: Although most of the novel takes place in the 1860s, the final two chapters of the novel move forward in time to the 1880s, depicting the death of Don Fabrizio, and then 1910, as the remaining members of the family, on the fiftieth anniversary of the novel's opening, face the loss of one of their last sources of prestige.
- End of an Era: The aristocracy are losing their influence and prestige and the lower classes are gaining power.
- Gratuitous French: The Salinas' governess, Mademoiselle Dombreuil, speaks in French all the time despite everyone around her being Italian.
- Impoverished Patrician: Tancredi's father lost all his wealth with his dissolute life and left Tancredi orphan at fourteen with only his title and his Blue Blood.
- Kissing Cousins: At the beginning of the novel it seems that a romance is developing between Tancredi and Concetta, who are first cousins. Prince Fabrizio doesn't approve a marriage between them, of course not for them being relatives, but because Concetta is a female and won't inherit the Salina's fortune and Tancredi needs a wealthy wife to become someone important. Concetta is clearly in love with Tancredi but it is left amibiguous if he did reciprocate. And then arrives Angelica and her huge dowry... At the end of the novel, when Tancredi is already dead and Concetta is a Old Maid, by some random comments given by an old friend of Tancredi, Concetta learns that actually Tancredi loved her but preferred to marry Angelica because she was richer. Angelica's looks surely helped.
- Like a Son to Me: It's no secret that Prince Fabrizio prefers Tancredi over his own firstborn son, since his heir, Paolo, is far less smart and strong-willed.
- Meet the New Boss: As far as Sicilians are concerned, the Italian Nation is just like every other invading usurper out to exploit them. The rigging of elections that we see merely confirms it.
- Nobility Marries Money: Impoverished patrician Tancredi needs Nouveau Riche Angelica's wealth to pursue the political career he wishes. The fact that she's stunningly beautiful doesn't hurt, but isn't the deciding factor.
- Nouveau Riche: Don Calogero Sedara, Angelica's father, is from a working-class background, got rich with cleverness, and managed to buy many of the properties lost by aristocrats.
- She's All Grown Up: Angelica at 13 was rather plain, while Angelica at 17 is a total stunner.
