Il Gattopardo

A good introduction to Italian literature from and about the unification of Italy is “Il Gattopardo” (the Leopard), a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa which talks about the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento.

Il Gattopardo tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, a 19th century Sicilian nobleman during the caotic years of the late 2860:s, when Italy was unified, a time of calls for democracy and revolution. Set during the time of the Risorgimento, when Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of Italian unification, swept through Sicily with his forces, known as The Thousand. When the book starts, in May of 1860, Garibaldi’s Redshirts have just landed on the Sicilian coast and are pressing inland to overthrow the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

The Leopard

As a result, the Prince’s position in the island’s class system is eroded by newly moneyed peasants and “shabby gentry.” The Prince is forced to choose between compromising his loyalty to tradition and accepting the decline of his family’s influence.

focuses upon the aristocratic Salina family, which is headed by the stoic Prince Fabrizio, a consummate womanizer who rules his family with an iron fist.

In 1963 it was made into a film staring starring Burt Lancaster, whcih on the Palm d’Or.