Book Club: Review thread The Leopard by Tomasi Di Lampedusa

[midnightcatprowl]

Thread for reviews after reading (or when you've given up reading the book) and for discussion of reviews. Short - even one word or one sentence reviews - just as welcome as longer reviews. N.B. Reviews are likely to contain spoilers.

[MistyMeena]

This is not a novel with a clear storyline. It documents the Prince of Salina at a few points in his life and beyond against the backdrop of Italy’s unification in the mid to late 1800’s. It is a series of intermingled stories. I can’t pinpoint what I feel about the book. I read half of it then read The Brief and went back to The Leopard. For some reason I felt unable to pick up where I had left off so I re-read it. I certainly felt I obtained more on a second read as I could pick up on details in the descriptions that explained the action but I still do not find it awfully memorable plot wise.

I liked the grace that the Prince demonstrated in the face of change. He was the sort of host who would not wear evening dress if there was a chance that his guests would not be able to wear the same and then squirmed when the Mayor arrived in tails. He made compromises for others but had uncomfortable experiences when others did not act similarly. His place, and that of his family, was being challenged by the changes in government. The Prince had been convinced that Sicily joining with Italy would bring about little alteration for him but gradually saw this eroded. The final chapter was sad with the realisation that his daughters had spent their lives attempting to maintain their status in society without ever really getting to live.

The writing and translation captured the 19th century well but just occasionally the author felt it necessary to insert the 20th century. There were references to jet planes, to Freud and to World Wars. It pulled the attention to the narrator and made no pretence of being anything other than a look back at an imagined life. The book was not published until after the author’s death and I wondered if anyone had discussed these passages with him. They were not so frequent as to provide a commentary or dialogue with the author, just a few occurrences.

There was a lot of charm in the writing with the odd wart thrown in. Much like a face or a personality, dare I say like a leopard appearing beautiful and lithe and then going in for the kill? The Prince was identified with the leopard throughout and this was how he appeared, steady for a long while but then cruel. He would be gracious to his family but then go to see his mistresses. Aside from him the warts appeared in the palace when the sadist’s room was discovered (long out of use by all accounts). Leading up to this there were descriptions of love and the twists and turns of the lovers through the palace but suddenly in the midst of these was mention of spaghetti vomit and a cat’s corpse. Humour, romance and cruelty interwoven.

A line that sticks in my mind is from a picnic when they were eating “local grapes so ugly to look at and so good to eat”. It felt like there was a lesson for life in that.

MM

[midnightcatprowl]

I can’t pinpoint what I feel about the book.

That's how I feel too. I'm glad this book was suggested. I'd never have even heard of it never mind read it otherwise and I thoroughly enjoyed it in a strange sort of way and, after a couple of false starts, found it fairly compulsive reading. Yet I'd find it difficult to explain why I enjoyed it so much or even what it was about.

What I particularly liked about this book was the beautiful use of language by the author. It is also a very complex usage and I frequently had to re-read sentences to fully understand or fully get the flavour of a feeling, attitude, concept, which was being very subtly expressed. I wasn't always sure even so that I had fully 'got' what was meant.

I also thought the descriptions of the Sicilian landscapes, buildings, weather, people and even the food were quite stunning but I'm not using stunning in the language of travel adverts but rather as something which is fascinating but leaves you feeling rather as if you've been hit over the head with a heavy object. It is not a country in which I'd taken a particular interest before reading this book but I feel from now on whenever I see or hear the word Sicily I'll have an immediate vision of it through the eyes of the Prince. Something which might be regretted by modern day Sicilians?

There is no 'story' as such and the book does seem to jump about a bit so that you don't quite know where you are or why you're there. MistyMeena said when talking of the odd intrusion of the modern world into the narrative

I wondered if anyone had discussed these passages with him.

This was a point which came up for me in a different context which is that I feel the book would make a better whole if some bits weren't there. The chapter where the priest goes on a visit to his old home and family, though interesting in itself, somehow seems an intrusion that doesn't quite connect with anything else. Also for me the last chapter maybe should not have been there, poignant and revealing though the situation and state of mind of the sisters may be. As the author died before it was definitely known that the book would be published and there were both handwritten versions and a typed version which do not correspond with each other and arguments ever since about which is the final version and what should or should not be included, I suppose quite a lot of things in the book were not discussed with the author in a way which would happen when an editor was preparing a book for print.

I liked the grace that the Prince demonstrated in the face of change.

Well yes in a way but to me this book is the description of a wasted life (plus also perhaps the description of the life of a depressive?). The Prince has power, wealth, land, status, high intelligence, a mathematical bent, the capacity for grace and insight, yet overall - despite the recognition for his achievement in astronomy - his life has been of little value to himself or to anyone else and the same seems to apply to his children. He's a relatively benevolent landlord yet has no interest in or belief in improving the lives of his tenants. He's mainly a kindly parent but has little real interest in his children and while providing for them financially seems to bother little about their future and/or is too lazy to do anything about it. I find it interesting that it ends up with the three daughters all unmarried. This was a time when women only had two real choices - marriage or the cloister - and even though the girls are free to make their own choice of spouse (within certain limits) I would imagine that most 'noble' families would regard it as important to make some push to find husbands for their daughters and it would not have been too difficult with the attractions of marriage bringing an association with this family and the reasonable dowry which would have gone with the bride. Some upstarts may now be richer than him but he's not poor and the girls were attractive and eligible brides. The decline of the family financially can't really be put down to the changing political situation as it is clear that the family and their estates have been in decline for a long time as can be seen in the loss of lands and the fact that the palaces are only part used with the rest left neglected and decaying. It didn't start with the Prince but he makes no effort of any sort to try to reverse or even slow the decline.

The Prince had been convinced that Sicily joining with Italy would bring about little alteration for him

I felt his thinking was more the despondent belief that nothing really changes for anyone as things just go round and round and round + he believes that Sicilians are by their nature not changeable so while there is nothing much to fear there is nothing much to hope for either, so there is no point in active participation or actively trying to do anything as it won't make any difference. So he doesn't decide for or against change, he just decides to do nothing. This powerful man (both physically and mentally and socially) is also plain lazy (or too depressed to be capable of action). His intense personal and family pride also seems to act to keep him in a state of inertia as he'd have to abandon some of it in order to actually 'do' something about the political situation or indeed about anything.

It is perhaps not unsurprising that this book seems to be becoming back into vogue as our current situation as a society seems to reflect the round and round in futile circles getting nowhere atmosphere of the book. Many of us today are stunned by what has happened in politics and society in recent times ranging from the toddler in the White House to the ever growing gap between the haves and have nots in our own country and from the return of rickets to the lurch towards extreme right wing politics and even the return towards a greatly increased risk of nuclear war. Fortunately many of us lack the Prince's languor and are not inhibited by the type of pride which shackles him so maybe in the end we won't continue to drink from the well which also spreads typhus and is used for the dumping of bodies and to hide prisoners but to understand the last sentence you'll have to have read the book!