The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Tr. Sp-Eng. from a review in Shvoong
Pic. from the movie by Luchino Visconti

 In this story we know about Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, one of the most important aristocrats of the island of Sicily. A Leopard appears on the coat of arms of the Salina family, a symbol that will accompany the Prince throughout his life.

 Don Fabrizio sees with distance and melancholy the end of an era, which marks the landing of Garibaldi in Sicily. The Prince of Salina and the aristocracy that he represents is close to an end and the bureaucrats and the bourgeoisie take advantage of the new political situation as emerging social classes that will bring the unification of Italy. Belonging to a family of long-established ancestry he feels outraged to learn that his nephew Tancredi Falconeri is fighting in Garibaldi's ranks, but he is pretty opportunistic and flexible to adapt to the new times, although it is also reassuring that at least his nephew won''t be reduced to social and political insignificance.

 As every summer, the Prince of Salina and his family move to the summer residence they have in Donnafugata, where he meets a new mayor, a lender and loan shark bourgeois who made career as a politician. His daughter Angelica is a young woman of great beauty, whom Tancredi expresses interest in marriage, although he had earlier tried to his cousin, the Prince's eldest daughter. Tancredi asks his uncle to intercede before Angelica's father so he approves their marriage. Fascinated by the beauty of Angelica and also by his desire for a political career, Tancredi wants to link to a bourgeois close to the new regime. Meanwhile, Don Calogero accepts Tancredi's request in order to earn "respect" to farmers who know his small home and despise him for his activity of usurer, while Angelica wants an ambitious husband to "project" herself to a status superior to his father's, whom she despises.