Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Duke of Palma di Montechiaro, prince of Lampedusa

He was born in

Palermo
in 1896
๏
When he was a child he studied in his large house in Palermo under the
supervision of a teacher and his mother, who taught him French and
literature
He attended:
1911 1915

Classical High School

The Faculty of Law

•First in Rome;
•Later in Palermo. • He never graduated.
He participated in the world war I and in the defeat of Caporetto
was captured by the Austrians, who imprisoned him in Hungary. He
managed to escape and returned on foot to Italy.
1925 He retired to private life, returning to Palermo, travelling and
staying for long periods abroad.

In San Pellegrino Terme at a literary conference he met Eugenio

1954 Montale.

It is said that he was on his return from that journey that he began to write
Il Gattopardo, completed two years later, in 1956.
A good expert of various languages and literatures, besides the classical
ones, he composed some essays on the French literature of the last
centuries and some stories and memories, which he did not give to the
prints; the novel, Il Gattopardo, was published posthumously edited by G.
Bassani, Milan 1958.

Palermo, Il
23th Dicember 1896 Gattopardo

Rome,
23th July 1957
 IL GATTOPARDO
• The success of the work was immediate and fired the imagination of L.
Visconti who drew the homonymous film version, in 1963.

• The title of the book, Il Gattopardo derives from the feline depicted in
the emblem of the illustrious Sicilian family of the princes Salina, to
which the characters and the writer belong.
 SETTING
•The novel is set in Sicily in 1860 and is the expression of the writer’s view of Sicily
transmitted by Fabrizio, prince Salina, the protagonist of the story, that gave voice to
the author’s vision of the immobility of his hometown, expressing his totally pessimistic
view of history, in the moment of transition between the domain of the Bourbons and
the Kingdom of Italy.

•The story begins in the sumptuous halls of Palazzo Salina,set in Palermo, home of one of
the most important aristocratic and conservative families of the island, it symbolizes
the stagnant political and social situation permanent for centuries in Sicily. Then the
scene shifts in the palace of Donnafugata that represents the changes due to the
arrival of Garibaldi but also the nostalgia for the past splendor of the nobility.
 CHARACTERS

• The characters are presented explicitly by the author with a direct

presentation, but very often many other characteristics are obtained by
interpreting or even just reading the thoughts of other characters inside
the story. The protagonist is the head of the family, Prince Fabrizio, a
very skeptical character with regard to the new times, yet aware of the
ineluctable end of the old institutions and of the society to which he
belongs.
 THEMES
• The themes and the motives presented are the contrapposition between
the revolution and the change, death, love and friendship and in some
occasions of jealousy. There is also a reference to the political ideals of
the time and a historical perspective.
• The vision of the world that appears is conflictual, in a specific way linked
with the Sicilian atmosphere and mentality, attached to the nobles’
privileges and stagnant vision of history.
 THEMES

“Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga com’è, “If we want everything to remain as it is,
bisogna che tutto cambi”. everything must change”.
–Tancredi
 CONTEXT
This novel is a historical and realist fiction, dealing with political events
actually happened in Sicily at the end of the century, in the moment of the
passage from the Bourbon society and the liberation of Sicily by Garibadi
with the subsequent annection of Sicily to Italy and the collapse of
aristocracy. Moreover, the text tells about the life of a true character
Fabrizio who embodies a relative of the author.
 MAIN SCENES

I. main scene: description of the family of prince Salina, of the environment in

which he lives.
II.main scene: the journey and the arrival at Donnafugata;
III. main scene: the famous kiss of Tancredi and Angelica;
IV. main scene: the most famous scene of the film: the ball scene.
I. MAIN SCENE
II. MAIN SCENE
III. MAIN SCENE
IV. MACROSEQUENZA