The Leopard

Content Warning: The source material and this section of the guide include references to sexual content and a possible joke about rape. 

The Leopard begins in Sicily in May 1860. The Salina family is part of the Sicilian aristocracy at a time of great social upheaval. The story begins as the Salina family ends the recitation of the Rosary and prepares for the rest of their day. The drawing room is decorated in lavish style, with murals and paintings in which ancient gods and deities hold up “the blue armorial shield of the Leopard” (2), the family sigil. Princess Maria Stella ushers the children from the room as Prince Fabrizio, the tall, powerful patriarch of the family, towers above them. Prince Fabrizio has German parentage, giving him a fair complexion that stands out in Sicily. His German ancestry also influences his stern, “authoritarian temperament” (3) and morality, as well as his tendency toward abstraction and intellectualism. The people and culture of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, have softened these tendencies within the Prince, but he continues to appear arrogant and contemptuous of his more pragmatic and practical family. Fabrizio is fond of astronomy and is almost sure that the stars follow a pattern he has calculated.

Prince Fabrizio’s personality is divided between his mother’s intellect and pride and his father’s irresponsibility and sensuality. This blend of personalities has left him discontented, particularly as he has overseen the “ruin of his own class” (4) and his family status. Nevertheless, he feels powerless to halt this decline.

Fabrizio follows his beloved dog, an excitable Great Dane named Bendicò, into the aromatic, putrid, almost-dreamlike garden. The setting reminds him of an incident a month earlier. A soldier had been fighting against the rebels and, having received a wound, crawled into the garden. The face of the dead soldier in the garden still haunts Prince Fabrizio, as though the dead man is asking Fabrizio the reason for his death. The Prince has no answer.

Fabrizio thinks of his outspoken brother-in-law Màlvica, who would argue that the soldier died in the name of the King. Màlvica would claim that the King represents the “order, continuity, decency, honor” (6), and everything else of the old ways, including the Church. In effect, the King represents everything that the modern “Sect” (6) wants to overthrow. Prince Fabrizio is moved by this idealism but feels that Màlvica is missing something. In recent decades, the Kings have disgraced the monarchy. In turn, he has begun to question the monarchy itself.

Prince Fabrizio meets often with King Ferdinand II, the King of Sicily. During one recent meeting at Caserta, King Ferdinand was perched behind a stack of official documents. He chatted to Fabrizio about family and science, then about the Viceroy of Sicily and the people’s mood. Fabrizio had heard little positive about the Viceroy from either liberals or the royalists, so he gave only a vague answer. During another meeting, King Ferdinand was more confrontational. He scolded Fabrizio for failing to keep control of Fabrizio’s nephew, the impulsive Prince Tancredi Falconeri. The King demanded that Fabrizio keep Tancredi in check. Fabrizio knows that the monarchy is stuck in a seemingly fatal decline. Should Italy be unified and the Piedmont family seize power in Sicily, nothing much might change other than the dialect of Italian. As such, Fabrizio is not sure what to do. He is unsure about who to support during this time of upheaval. All he knows is that the “status quo” (10) will almost certainly cause more bloodshed.

In the evening, the household gathers for a dinner. The household is made up of 14 people and includes the children as well as their tutors and governesses. The dinner itself is aristocratic and lavish, but shabbier and less formal then it once might have been. Prince Fabrizio serves soup to the family; the hand holding the ladle quivers with “great though still controlled anger” (11), directed at the late arrival of Francesco Paolo, the Prince’s 16-year-old son. Prince Fabrizio quietly seethes throughout the meal. When Princess Maria touches his hand affectionately, Fabrizio feels a sudden rush of desire. In doing so, however, he is struck by a mental image of Mariannina, a sex worker in the town, whom he visits frequently. Fabrizio calls for his carriage to be prepared. With tears in her eyes, Maria asks Fabrizio not to go to Palermo due to the violence outside. Annoyed, he refuses to listen to her. He rides in his carriage with Father Pirrone, the priest, as the sound of Maria’s shrieks echo outside, caused by “one of her fits of hysteria” (12).

Fabrizio arrives in Palermo. He passes the villa of the Falconeri family, now inherited by Tancredi, the son of Fabrizio’s sister. Before he died, Tancredi’s father wasted the family fortune. Fabrizio took care of Tancredi, making Tancredi his ward. He is fond of his 21-year-old nephew, who has a thoughtful demeanor but also a fondness for the good times. Privately, Fabrizio wishes that Tancredi were his heir, rather than Paolo. Fabrizio does not approve of Paolo’s only love: horses. However, he also does not approve of Tancredi’s politics, as Tancredi has recently shown sympathy to the Sect and to the rebels, led by Garibaldi. Fabrizio has already intervened several times to protect Tancredi from the authorities. He refuses to blame Tancredi; instead, he blames the “bad times” (13).

Entering Palermo, Father Pirrone points to a rebel campfire on the distant mountainside. In the cities, they pass the monasteries and convents. Palermo seems almost gloomy in the night. They pass patrolling soldiers and Father Pirrone is taken to the house of the Jesuits, while Prince Fabrizio proceeds to his palace in the city. On foot, he walks to the neighborhood of Palermo, which is famed for its brothels. Tomorrow, he knows, he will need to make a confession to Father Pirrone. If he does not satisfy his lust, he tells himself, then he will commit even worse sins. He blames his wife for her religious devotion; she no longer provides him with sexual satisfaction, so he must visit sex workers. Fabrizio thinks that his wife is the real sinner. In all their years of marriage, he notes, he has never “seen her navel” (16).

Two hours pass. Prince Fabrizio collects Father Pirrone and leaves the city. Pirrone shares a rumor: Garibaldi’s Piedmontese army will invade soon. Father Pirrone is concerned. Though Fabrizio feels satisfied after his visit to Mariannina, he also feels somewhat disgusted at what he has done. When they reach the palace, Maria is asleep. The sight of her touches Fabrizio. He wakes her up, and they have sex.

The following day, Tancredi visits. Tancredi says that he wants to join the rebels who are camped on the mountainside. Fabrizio is struck again by the image of the dead soldier as Tancredi explains that now is the time for action. If things are to remain the same, he says, then things must also change. Fabrizio is moved by his nephew’s argument, thinking of Tancredi as his “real son” (19). He gives his nephew money.

Later, Fabrizio enters his lavish office, decorated with paintings of the family estates. The paintings reveal the “wealth of centuries” (21) but hide the declining reality of these estates. Setting aside the uninteresting heaps of important paperwork, Fabrizio opens his astronomy journal. His reading is interrupted by Don Ciccio Ferrara, his accountant and a known liberal. As they speak, Don Ciccio optimistically mentions the possibility of revolution and the unification of Italy. To Fabrizio, Don Ciccio represents the rising class and their “deluded and rapacious” (22) way of thinking. He believes that his accountant is a fool to believe that revolution will lead to the birth of a new Sicily.

Later, Prince Fabrizio is visited by his agent, Russo. Like Don Ciccio, Russo represents the ascendant Sicilian bourgeoisie to Fabrizio. Like Don Ciccio, Russo is optimistic about the idea of revolution. Russo says that there may not even be violence and that good times are certain for “poor folk” (24) like him. Russo is not as poor as he suggests, Fabrizio knows, as he is on the cusp of buying an estate of his own. Privately, Prince Fabrizio believes that the “petty little local Liberals” (25) are purely self-interested. After the morning’s conversations, Prince Fabrizio is increasingly sure that any revolution will bring only a veneer of change. Men like Russo and Don Ciccio simply wish to replace the current rulers with themselves while keeping everything else the same.

Walking in the garden with Bendicò, Prince Fabrizio wonders about the future of the monarchy. Other countries, such as France, are seemingly doing well with their “illegitimate” (26) rulers. He turns to astronomy as a welcome distraction, finding Father Pirrone in the observatory. Pirrone expects Fabrizio to make a confession, but Fabrizio says that the priest already knows what he did the previous night. Fabrizio surveys the Sicilian countryside, wondering aloud whether Victor Emmanuele could change Sicily’s magic. Pirrone believes that the local gentry will reach a compromise with the Masons and the liberals; the Church property will be seized and redistributed among them. Poor people who depend on the Church will be left destitute. Fabrizio notes that the gentry differs from the Church because they were not promised “immortality” (29) in heaven. As such, they will extend their mortal lives in any way they can. Relieved that he has not angered the Prince, Pirrone reminds Fabrizio to make confession. Together, they work on astronomy charts, and Fabrizio is content, feeling more connected to reality than usual in these “moments of abstraction” (30).

By lunchtime, everyone seems more relaxed except for Concetta, Fabrizio’s second oldest daughter. She is worried that Tancredi is missing. Fabrizio realizes that she is in love with her cousin Tancredi. Later, Fabrizio finds Paolo waiting in his study. Paolo voices his disapproval of Tancredi’s politics, but Fabrizio senses that Paolo is motivated by jealousy. Tancredi is fighting for the future of the family, he tells Paolo, so Paolo should return to the stables with his horses. He sends Paolo away and enjoys a nap. When he wakes up, there is a note from Màlvica beside a newspaper: The Piedmontese invasion has begun, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Màlvica and his family are leaving Sicily, which makes Fabrizio think that his brother is a panicky fool. Summoning his family, he leads them in the recitation of the Rosary.