Leopard

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was a Sicilian nobleman, Duke of Parma and Prince of Lampedusa. He was born in Palermo in 1896 and died in Rome in 1957. He lived the life of a literary dilettante, was familiar with the great literatures of the world, and was widely travelled. Much of Lampedusa's other work is collected in The Siren and Other Writings.

"Every once in a while, like certain golden moments of happiness, infinitely memorable, one stumbles on a book or a writer, and the impact is like an indelible mark. Lampedusa's The Leopard, his only novel, and a masterpiece, is such a work" Independent "Perhaps the greatest novel of the century" -- L.P. Hartley "One of the great lonely books...not a historical novel, but a novel which happens to take place in history" -- E.M. Forster "The poetry of Lampedusa's novel flows into the Sicilian countryside...a work of great artistry" -- Peter Ackroyd "I was astounded by the power of the writing" -- Corin Redgrave