The Leopard

First published in 1958, this novel follows Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, through Garibaldi's 1860 landing in Sicily and the collapse of Bourbon rule. From the family palaces at Palermo and Donnafugata he watches his nephew Tancredi join the insurgents and then marry Angelica, daughter of the rising mayor Don Calogero, while the prince himself hunts, reads the stars, and calculates what a noble house can keep. Elections, a plebiscite, and the arrival of a Piedmontese officer mark the new order. The book is a historical novel of class and compromise, not a military history of unification.

Bound in red cloth cover blocked with a gilt and black design. Cream endpapers. Red slipcase.