The Leopard - Feb 2019 Book Group discussion thread
7 watchers
Feb 2019
3:38pm, 5 Feb 2019
38,272 posts
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McGoohan
So here's a thing. Visconti made the film version which has mixed reviews until winning a shedload of awards and being called a masterpiece. He was told they needed a big star so cast Burt Lancaster. This means in the Italian version, Burt is dubbed and everyone else is speaking Italian, and in the US version, Burt speaks and everyone else is dubbed into English. Which led me to discover that there was a comedy parody/sequel made called I figli del leopardo ("The children of the leopard"). Here's the plot as described by wikipedia: "Sicily, 1860. The Baron Tulico is a penniless man and womanizer, who abandons his mistress Maria Rosa for a marriage of convenience. The two pharmacists Franco and Ciccio, called for help from Maria, try to put the baron's head in place, but do not have time, because the two are recruited into the army of Giuseppe Garibaldi. After many adventures Franco and Ciccio track the baron, and force him to recognize the two of them as his legitimate children." (try to put the baron's head in place??) |
Feb 2019
7:15pm, 6 Feb 2019
5,679 posts
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postieboy
My ignorance knows no bounds, a trip to Wikipedia showed me what a venerated work this is. A few thoughts if I may. I loved the intimacy of the story and Don Fabrizio's reluctant acceptance over the inevitable changes which the revolution brought gives it dignity. I was unsure of what the chapter concerning Father Pirrone's trip home was in aid of apart from highlighting his talent in diplomacy and manipulation. The big jump in years gave the story a disjointed ending which I found a bit disconcerting but it highlights the Salina's family fall from grace as a nobel family's influence diminishes in a changing world. Quite a melancholic story all told but one I enjoyed reading, a very high class book. |
Feb 2019
10:00am, 10 Feb 2019
11,367 posts
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Serendippily
Phew so without reading back, this was short but hard going. The writer felt deeply about Sicily, the Sicilian temperament, the role of nobility and the decline of nobility. Me, pleb that I am, was not so bothered. There was a lot of craft and a lot of fervour but not much to absorb me so a lot of whole sections were a grind. I enjoyed the sections with dog and priest. But it felt like that definition of literature “a book that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read”.
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Feb 2019
10:01am, 10 Feb 2019
11,368 posts
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Serendippily
So having read back - sorry postie I have my moments of class but this wasn’t one of them 
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Feb 2019
10:09am, 10 Feb 2019
34,266 posts
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Diogenes
I haven’t quite finished yet, but feel much the same as you, Dippers.
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Feb 2019
9:40pm, 11 Feb 2019
38,367 posts
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McGoohan
That was a lot harder work than I expected. It wasn't so much a conventional novel as a series of vignettes, almost like staged tableaux, each one a little snapshot of the decline of the aristocracy in Sicily. I thought Serendipilly got it on the nose really - it's one of those novels you feel you ought to have read. Liebling said she'd read it when she was younger and had enjoyed it while remembering almost nothing. I think I'm having almost the opposite reaction to postieboy. From the opening chapter, I took against the language. I've no idea how much is down to the author and how much down to the translator but I'm guessing he kept to the lengthy sentences and paragraphs. Some find it sumptuous and gorgeous etc. I didn't. It seemed to me to be needlessly florid. I suppose the purple prose highlights a certain type of pompous posho but I needed a pickaxe to wade through it at times. Why end a sentence after three lines when the deft insertion of a few semi-colons can keep it going the whole paragraph? I didn't mind the time jumps at the end so much. Probably the most affecting chapter was Don Fabbo narrating his own death. Still, it outstayed its welcome a bit, which is impressive for a novel coming in at 212 pages. Before I'd finished, I looked at the almost overwhelmingly positive reviews on Good Reads. There were a few that saw it as a persuasive argument for the aristos. I think the Father Pirrone going home chapter is maybe meant to be seen that way - it's another voice than Don Febreze's to say how valuable and yet harmless they are. By contrast, I wanted to string em all up by the end of chapter one. Basta! Sandinista! |
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Feb 2019
9:45pm, 11 Feb 2019
34,290 posts
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Diogenes
I’m seriously thinking of making this a DNF. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t care to read any further.
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Feb 2019
9:49pm, 11 Feb 2019
38,369 posts
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McGoohan
I take it you haven't been Audible-ing it then? Which reminds me - when we were at the Premier Inn, Liebling read the Father Pirrone chapter to me - she did all the voices and everything! |
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Feb 2019
9:59pm, 11 Feb 2019
34,292 posts
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Diogenes
I am Audibling it, I’ve just reached the Father Speroni (autocorrect says) chapter
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Feb 2019
10:01pm, 11 Feb 2019
38,372 posts
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McGoohan
I quite fancy a pint of Peroni now
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