Set in the 1860s, The Leopard is the story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. Although Giuseppe di Lampedusa had long had the book in mind, he began writing it only in his late fifties; he died at age sixty, soon after the manuscript was rejected as unpublishable. Here, finally, is the definitive edition of this brilliant and timeless novel.
