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Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe

The Leopard, [11] 57; [77] 86

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20230301100027 Derek Parker on Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard, Slightly Foxed 77

Power and the Prince

Derek Parker on Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard

Recently, the lack of anything worth watching on TV sent me, once again, to the DVD of Visconti’s lush 1963 film of Giuseppe Lampedusa’s The Leopard (1958). If one loves a book, the idea that a film version might be in a different way as satisfactory as the original seems a sort of betrayal. But at the very least I find it impossible to reread the book without Burt Lancaster’s Prince Fabrizio, Claudia Cardinale’s ravishing Angelica and Alain Delon’s handsome, selfregarding Tancredi illustrating the narrative as a most remarkable set of lithographs might.
20060901153828 Giuseppe di Lampedusa and Lucio Piccolo - John de Falbe on The Leopard

The Quiet Sicilian

John de Falbe on Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard

I first read Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard while I was in Palermo in 1981, at the age of 18. It was one of those defining reading experiences which are not always easy to explain but which have to do with a deep sense of recognition. Through the alchemy of fictional characters and the way in which they engage with their world, you are taken somewhere (psychologically, morally, emotionally) that you do not usually expect to go, and the journey reveals to you something about yourself and the world you inhabit.
20070301164418 John de Falbe on Harvill Press, Leopard series - Slightly Foxed Issue 13

Riding the Leopard

John de Falbe on Harvill Press

The more you read, the more you realize you want to read, for each book generates a further reading list. Only occasional readers imagine that reading is a matter of working through a list of classics, like moving a pile of logs. The rest of us know that every ‘classic’ multiplies infinitely into minor classics, frivolities and squibs. You cannot possibly read them all now, but you know you want to read them one day. Some of these you will buy and, although they may remain unread, they contain a promise of future pleasure and their company alone helps sustain an idea of yourself, and of the world.

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