Sunday, December 02, 2007

IL GATTOPARDO - A MODERN CLASSIC

I don’t know quite why, browsing in a bookshop in Pinner, North London in 1967, I picked up a paperback entitled The Leopard, a novel written by one Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. I was studying for A levels in English Lit., French and Spanish at the time, so had no specific interest in Italy. [How that was to change!] However, the book looked interesting enough for me to buy and when I got home and started reading it I was immediately fascinated. Since then I have read it many times in Italian, “taught” it and have, of course, seen the wonderful film based upon it, in which Burt Lancaster, as the Prince of Salina, gives the performance of his life.

Set in the Risorgimento, Il Gattopardo [= "The Leopard” because there was a leopard, serval or ocelot in the coat of arms of the author's family] is the story of the last years of don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, who cannot come to terms with the changes in Sicilian society which the unification of Italy will bring.

We meet his nephew, Tancredi, who is expected to marry the Prince’s daughter, Concetta, but falls in love with Angelica Sedàra, the daughter of a rich but non-aristocratic politician, thus breaking poor Concetta’s heart. Tancredi’s marriage symbolises the transfer of power in Sicily from the aristocracy to a corrupt new middle class.

The novel is about all this and more and I have to warn you that I find the ending unbearably sad. Yet I believe it is a key to understanding Sicily today. Here is one of my favourite passages from the book. Regular readers of this blog will know which parts resonate with me!

Don Fabrizio explains his refusal of a seat in the new Senate: “ Be patient now, Chevally. We Sicilians have become accustomed, by a long, a very long hegemony of rulers who were not of our religion and did not speak our language,to split hairs. If we had not done so we’d never have coped with Byzantine tax gatherers, with Berber Emirs, with Spanish viceroys. Now the bent is endemic, we’re made like that…… All Sicilian self-expression, even the most violent, is really wish-fulfilment; our sensuality is a hankering for oblivian, our shooting and knifing a hankering for death; our languour, our exotic vices, a hankering for voluptuous immobility, that is for death again; our meditative air is that of a void wanting to scrutinise the enigmas of Nirvana……. I said Sicilians, I should have added Sicily, the atmosphere, the climate, the landscape of Sicily. Those are the forces which have formed our minds together and perhaps more than alien pressure and various foreign invasions: this landscape which knows no mean between sensuous sag and hellish drought; which is never pretty, never ordinary, never relaxed, as should be a country made for rational beings to live in…..Six times thirty days of sun sheer down upon our heads; this summer of ours which is as long and glum as a Russian winter and which we struggle against with less success. If a Sicilian worked hard in any of those months he would expend energy enough for three. Then water is either lacking altogether or has to be carried from so far that every drop is paid for by a drop of sweat… This violence of landscape, this cruelty of climate, this continual tension is everything…. I don’t deny that a few Sicilians may succeed in breaking the spell of the island; but they would have to leave it very young….[else] they will remain convinced that their country is basically calumniated like all other countries, that the civilised norm is here, the oddities elsewhere.”

If you are going to read Il Gattopardo, or have already read it and are interested in its author, I do recommend David Gilmour’s biography of Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Last Leopard, for this, too, is a story of an aristocrat at odds with his times.

Sadly, the Donnafugata mentioned in the novel has virtually disappeared and is not the one near here, but take a walk around Baroque Modica and especially Baroque Ragusa and you may sense, as I do, the ghost of the Prince of Salina echoing your every step. I am so grateful that I can do that every day now, if I wish!

19 comments:

Leslie: said...

This story sounds amazing! I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before, but after looking into it on Chapters' website, will see if I can get it from the library. If not, I'll purchase it and will let you know my thoughts. I'd love it if you could "teach" it to me. (You know what I mean...as a teacher myself) Ciao ... :D

jmb said...

So now you are making me really want to get this book out and read it.

That's quite interesting, that this book lead you to study Italian and finally live there. The power of the pen.

What a history Sicily has had. So many different people came to rule it.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Ciao, Leslie. I like the new avatar! I do hope you can get hold of the book and enjoy it. I always used to feel slightly ashamed when I had to "teach" a book - the author never meant it to be torn apart and analysed like that!
Hi, jmb. Well, it was a combination of factors that led me to Italian, but maybe this book sparked an interest in Sicily. Yes, Sicily has had so many invasions and the conquerors must have thought they'd found paradise.

Sally said...

One of the all time great books - AND you chose one of the most resonant passages; such a star Welsh.

Whispering Walls said...

It's a brilliant book and supposed to be "a perfect novel" from a technical point of view.

marymaryquitecontrary said...

I will now release it from my, "wish list" and have it sent from Amazon without delay.

James Higham said...

This was required reading at school and I still remember it - enormously evocative. I asked many students if they knew of it [either the Italian or the English title] and none did.

Sad - suppose they're all reading feminists classics from the 70s. :)

Sean Jeating said...

"I always used to feel slightly ashamed when I had to "teach" a book - the author never meant it to be torn apart and analysed like that!"

What a sentence, Mylady! Chapeau.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Thanks, Sally. Hi, WW. Yes, it's very fine technically. I hope you enjoy it, MM. Hi, James. Yes, sad the students don't know of it. As for them reading feminist classics from the 70s, we can but hope! Merci, Sean.

lady macleod said...

It sounds fascinating, but that sad ending puts me off a bit.. I know what you mean about having the reality of the history of a tale. When I read White Gold I was traveling through Menkes on the train! I agree it is wonderful to feel ourselves walking through history rather than seeing it through a detached distance.

Thank you for sharing.

David said...

I am so pleased you have talked about this book and brought it to the attention of your readers as I have loved Il Gattopardo for years.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Lady M. Don't let the thought of the ending put you off, please. You and I are lucky to be able to "live" history in that sense. Hello, David. I am so happy that you, too, are a lover of this book. I have always been amazed that it is so little known in Britain.

Ellee Seymour said...

I think you are becoming very Sicilian yourself Welshcakes It's time for a dashing Sicilian man to sweep you off your feet.
He may have one thing in common with an Englishman, "the way to his heart is through his stomach".
It sounds like a great book and has WW's seal of approval too, another literary expert like yourself.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Ellee. I think I am possibly becoming more Sicilian, too! As for the dashing Sicilian man, I continue to hourly expect him...

Leslie: said...

I've requested the book from the local library but it has to come from another one. I can hardly wait to start it.

Where's Mr. Gorgeous these days? *wink*

Sharon said...

I saved reading this post till this morning as this book is something my friends and I had talked about this summer. Sadly, I have not read it yet. But then I have something to look forward to. You post very interesting subjects.
Is it true that the way to an Englishman's heart is thru his stomach??

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Leslie. I'll be interested to learn your thoughts on the book once you have read it. Haven't seen Mr G for a few weeks now! Hi, Sharon. I hope you enjoy the book when you do read it. Thank you for your kind words. "Thye way to an Englishman's hear" - well, cooking works on Welshmen!

Ellee Seymour said...

Good luck, I'm hoping for you too.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Thank, Ellee.

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