The Last Leopard

David Gilmour

Editions

Review

Anyone who has enjoyed The Leopard hbk £9.99pbk £6.99 will find this outstanding biography of its author a treat.  It is a remarkable, uncanny achievement because it makes Lampedusa utterly riveting, although he never did much in life except sit in a café until he wrote his novel in his mid-fifties, shortly before his death.  Gilmour portrays the man's pathos and clouded brilliance against the faded grandeur of his background with unerring sensitivity. 

While researching the biography, Gilmour discovered reams of marvellous notes made by Lampedusa on literature, the fruit of a lifetime's reading, which he used to tutor two friends in a café.  Some of these, together with a childhood memoir and three short stories, are available in The Siren & Selected Writings.

And if you haven't read The Leopard, do so! It is an epic story of the decay of a noble family, the destruction of its society and the corruption of the Risorgimento ideals. - review by Johnny de Falbe

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