Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di << lam puh DOO suh, juh SEHP ee taw MAH see dee >> (1896-1957), was an Italian author who gained international fame for his only novel, The Leopard. Lampedusa wrote it shortly before his death. The novel was rejected by publishers during his lifetime and finally published in 1958, shortly after his death.
The novel takes place in Sicily in the 1860’s. It is set against the background of the turbulent attempt to unite Italy led by the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. The central character is Don Fabrizio, a Sicilian aristocrat called the Leopard because the animal appears in his family’s crest. The work won praise for its keen psychological portrait of Fabrizio, who watches the power in his society shift from the old aristocracy to the new and often unscrupulous middle class.
Lampedusa was born in Palermo on Dec. 23, 1896, into an old aristocratic Sicilian family. He inherited the family titles of Prince of Lampedusa and Duke of Palma. He served in World War I (1914-1918) and later traveled widely. After 1945, he began writing prose. Lampedusa’s only other published work was Two Stories and a Memory, published in 1961, after his death on July 23, 1957. It consists of short fiction and fragments of an autobiography.
