In the Salina coat of arms, the long—whiskered leopard is the symbol of an ancient power whose last glorious representative is Prince Fabrizio. Colossal and eccentric, he looms over the entire novel, which paints a picture of the Sicilian aristocracy when, after the arrival of Garibaldi’s forces in 1860, a new class, the bourgeoisie, were coming to power. A counterpoint to the figure of the prince is his young nephew Tancredi, a new man who paves the way for the ascent of this enterprising middle class. His liberal ideas and marriage to Angelica Sedara, daughter of a shrewd and prosperous peasant, mark the gradual loss of power that is the historical fate of the Salina lineage. The price watches his ancient household and its august strength being ‘corrupted’ and is left the only survivor of an eclipsed world, a spectator, a passive leopard whose claws no longer have the power of life or death.


Written in 1956 but only discovered after its author’s death in 1958, the novel became a cause célèbre and enjoyed immediate success as the product of a great narrator. Since then it has become a literary classic, translated into many languages, made famous in an unforgettable film by Lucchino Visconti in the 1960s.

‘His arrival was greeted with happy tears. He embraced and blessed his mother, whose deep widow’s weeds set off nicely her white hair and rosy hue... As soon as he got into the house he was assailed as always by sweet youthful memories. Nothing was changed, from the red brick floor to the sparse furniture; the same light entered the small narrow windows; Romeo, the dog, barking briefly in a corner, was exactly like another hound, its great-great-grandfather, his companion in violent play; and from the kitchen arose the centuries-old aroma of simmering stew of essence of tomatoes, onions and mutton, for macaroni on festive occasions.’ pp155-6