View source for Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

{{short description|Sicilian writer and prince (1896–1957)}}
{{Copy edit |for= verbosity | date=August 2025}}
{{use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox royalty
| honorific_prefix   = 
| name               = ''[[Don (honorific)|Don]]'' Giuseppe Tomasi
| title              = Prince of Lampedusa<br />Duke of Palma<br />[[Grandee|Grandee of Spain]]
| image              = Tomasi di Lampedusa.jpg
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1896|12|23|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Palermo]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1957|07|23|1896|12|23|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Rome]], [[Italy]]
| spouse             = [[Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee]]
}}
'''Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma''', [[Grandee|GE]] (23 December 1896 – 23 July 1957), known as '''Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa''' ({{IPA|it|dʒuˈzɛppe toˈmaːzi di lampeˈduːza}}), was a Sicilian writer, as well as the last generation of [[Prince of Lampedusa|Tomasi Princes of Lampedusa]] before the family's and their titles' extinction.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard A. Cook|title=Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia|publisher=Garland|year=2001|isbn=9780815340584|page=766}}</ref> He is most famous for his only novel, ''[[The Leopard|Il Gattopardo]]'' (first published posthumously in 1958), which is set in his native [[Sicily]] during the ''[[Risorgimento]]''. A reserved, solitary, shy, and somewhat [[misanthropic]] [[aristocrat]], he opened up only with a few close friends,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=91–95}}</ref> and spent a great deal of his time reading and [[meditating]]. He said of himself as a child, "I was a boy who liked solitude, who preferred the company of things to that of people",<ref>Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, ''I Racconti'' (''Stories''), Universale Economica [[Feltrinelli (publisher)|Feltrinelli]], 2005, p. 53</ref> and in 1954 wrote, "Of my sixteen hours of daily wakefulness, at least ten are spent in solitude."<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=106}}</ref>

==Biography==
Tomasi was born in [[Palermo]] to Giulio Maria Tomasi, [[Prince of Lampedusa]], Duke of [[Palma di Montechiaro]], [[Baron]] of [[Torretta]], and [[Grandee of Spain]] (1868–1934), and Beatrice Mastrogiovanni Tasca [[Filangieri]] di Cutò (1870–1946).<ref name="family tree">{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|loc=Genealogical Tree of the Lampedusas}}</ref><ref name=Gilmour-5>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=5}}</ref> He was fourth cousin once removed of jeweler [[Fulco di Verdura]] and first cousin of poet [[Lucio Piccolo]].<ref name="family tree" /> He became an only child after the death (from [[diphtheria]]) in 1897 of his sister Stefania.<ref name=Gilmour-5 /> He was very close to his mother, a strong personality who influenced him a great deal, especially because his father was rather cold and detached.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=18 ''et. seq.''}}</ref> Although much of the paternal family fortune was lost even before his father's time, and another large portion was tied up in lengthy [[litigation]],<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=10–13}}</ref> they still owned the grand Palazzo Lampedusa in Palermo,<ref name="Gilmour 1988 13">{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=13}}</ref> which they shared with his paternal grandparents, three bachelor uncles, and a number of servants.<ref name="Gilmour 1988 13"/> This was the main residence of his childhood, although he spent summers and some other periods at the [[Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò, Santa Margherita di Belice|Palazzo Filangeri-Cutò]], his mother's family home in rural [[Santa Margherita di Belice]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=23 ''et. seq.''}}</ref>

At first, his education was a bit erratic: on his eighth birthday, he had already learned conversational French but had not yet learned to read or write even his native language.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=22, 27}}</ref> Beginning in the summer of his eighth year he studied in the two family palaces with a tutor (including the subjects of literature and English), with his mother (who taught him French)<ref name=Gilmour-27>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=27}}</ref> and with a grandmother who read him the novels of [[Emilio Salgari]].{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The palace in Santa Marghereta had an excellent library, from which Tomasi soon read voraciously.<ref name=Gilmour-27 /> The palace at Santa Margherita had a small theatre. For two weeks every summer a troupe of traveling players rented the theatre for a nominal fee and put on a different play every night for two weeks. Tomasi saw many performances there; years later he particularly recalled seeing his first performance of ''[[Hamlet]]'' with an audience composed largely of "illiterate labourers."<ref name=Gilmour-26>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=26}}</ref>

In March 1911 his mother's younger sister, Princess Julia Trigona, a [[lady in waiting]] to [[Elena of Montenegro|Queen Elena]], was murdered by her lover Baron Vincenzo Paternò del Cugno.<ref name=Gilmour-29>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Murdered Princess Refused Baron Cash; Paterno Wanted $4,000 to Pay His Debts&mdash;Ill-Treated Her and Then Slew Her.|date=4 March 1911|work=New York Times|page=4|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/03/04/archives/murdered-princess-refused-baron-cash-paterno-wanted-4000-to-pay-his.html}}</ref> The resulting scandal led the family to spend the summer in [[Tuscany]] and the autumn in [[Rome]].<ref name="Gilmour-29"/> That autumn, Tomasi attended the ''[[liceo classico]]'' in Rome and then continued that curriculum at the ''liceo'' in Palermo for roughly three years.<ref name=Gilmour-31>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=31}}</ref> In 1914-1915 he was enrolled in the Law Faculty of the [[University of Genoa]], though it is not clear that he actually ever attended.<ref name=Gilmour-31 /> He definitely attended law classes in Rome in early 1915.<ref name=Gilmour-31 /> However that year he was drafted{{citation needed|date=June 2023|reason=Definitely served, but we have no citation that he was conscripted}} into the army. He served first in the artillery (where he became a [[corporal]]), then transferred to the infantry.<ref name=Gilmour-32>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=32}}</ref> Beginning in May 1917 he underwent officer training in [[Turin]], and was sent to the front as an officer that September.<ref name=Gilmour-33>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=33}}</ref> When the Italians lost the [[Battle of Caporetto]], he was well to the west of the front lines of the main battle, but was taken prisoner by the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] during the chaotic retreat.<ref name=Gilmour-33 /> He was held in a prisoner of war camp near [[Vienna]] (and was even allowed a visit to the city at one point).<ref name=Gilmour-34>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=34}}</ref> As the war approached its end he succeeded in escaping and returning to Italy.<ref name=Gilmour-34 />

After being mustered out of the army in February 1920 as a lieutenant,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=34–35}}</ref> he returned to Sicily, where he spent several months in a state of nervous exhaustion.<ref name=Gilmour-35>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=35}}</ref> After a few brief attempts at resuming his formal studies, he entered a relatively peripatetic stage of his life.<ref name=Gilmour-35 /> Finding post-War Sicily much less to his taste than pre-War Sicily,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=37 ''et. seq.''}}</ref> he spent time in [[Genoa]], [[Turin]], [[Tuscany]], [[Bologna]] and even [[Munich]].<ref name=Gilmour-38>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=38}}</ref>

While his formal education may have been erratic, Tomasi was a strong, self-driven reader, and had a great facility with languages. Besides a basic knowledge of Latin and Greek obtained in the ''liceo'',<ref name=Gilmour-31 /> he had mastered Italian, French, and German as a child, and English shortly thereafter.<ref name=Gilmour-39>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=39}}</ref> Late in life, he would add Spanish, and he also learned some Russian along the way.<ref name=Gilmour-107>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=107}}</ref> He read extensively in all of these languages, as well as reading Russian literature in translation.<ref name=Gilmour-39 /> Primarily he read literature and history, though he also read books about art and architecture.<ref name=Gilmour-39 /> His tastes were broad and his reading extensive: he had read all of [[Shakespeare]]'s works before his first visit to the United Kingdom in his twenties; he was almost certainly one of the first Italians to plunge seriously into [[James Joyce]]; and he read many minor writers,<ref name=Gilmour-39 /> many of whom he found provided a window into particular times and milieux.<ref name=Gilmour-40>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=40}}</ref>

Tomasi's uncle [[Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta]] was Italian ambassador to the UK from 1922<ref name=Gilmour-46>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=46}}</ref> to 1927.<ref name=Gilmour-59>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=59}}</ref> Although Pietro's own politics were [[liberal conservatism|liberal conservative]], he was a diplomat rather than a politician and continued to serve into Italy's [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist era]]<ref name=Gilmour-46 /> until [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] ultimately demanded his resignation.<ref name=Gilmour-59 /> Tomasi made numerous long visits to London during his uncle's tenure as ambassador, travelling a good deal within the United Kingdom and in France on the way there and back.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=45 ''et. seq.''}}. {{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=51}} for his travels within the UK.</ref> It was also through his uncle that Tomasi would meet his future wife. Pietro was married to [[Alice Barbi]], who was widow of a [[Baltic German]] baron,<ref name=Gilmour-46 /> by whom she had two daughters Olga, nicknamed Lolette,<ref name=Gilmour-60>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=60}}</ref><ref name="family tree" /> and [[Alexandra von Wolff-Stomersee]] (1894–1982), nicknamed "Licy".<ref name=Gilmour-60 />

Little is known of Tomasi's relations with women before his marriage.<ref name=Gilmour-52>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=52}}</ref> He was engaged at least twice&mdash;once to an English girl, once to an Italian girl&mdash;but even the names of these fiancées are unknown,<ref name=Gilmour-52/> as are the names of his friends and associates in England, including a Scottish girl with whom he once described himself as "infatuated."<ref name=Gilmour-52/>
 
[[File:Giuseppe e Licy nel castello di Stomersee.jpg|thumb|left|upright|With Licy at Stomersee in 1931.]]
Tomasi and Licy first met in London in 1925.<ref name=Gilmour-61>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=61}}</ref> He visited her at [[Stāmeriena Palace]] (Stomersee) in 1927.<ref name=Gilmour-61 /> They met again in Rome in 1930, Stomersee in 1931, and she visited him at Easter 1932 in Palermo.<ref name=Gilmour-61 /> Since 1918, and throughout this period, she remained married to André Pilar, an Estonian baron.<ref name=Gilmour-60 /> Pilar was homosexual, and the terms of the marriage are unclear; Pilar, Licy, and Tomasi all remained close even after the prior couple divorced and Licy married Tomasi.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=60, 64, 69–70, 98–99, 104}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=61}} refers to the dissolution of her first marriage as a "divorce and annulment."</ref> (For that matter, it is not clear whether Tomasi's marriage with Licy had a sexual component, either.<ref name=Gilmour-67>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=67}}</ref>)

The marriage took place in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady Church, Riga|Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady Church]]{{citation needed|date=June 2023|reason=specific church lacks citation, though Gilmour does say they were married in an Orthodox church}} in [[Riga]] on 24 August 1932.<ref name=Gilmour-63>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=63}}</ref> Tomasi had kept his marriage plans entirely secret from his family<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=61 ''et. seq.''}}</ref> and even on his wedding day sent them letters saying only that he had "decided to marry" Licy, not that he had done so;<ref name=Gilmour-63 /> it took about a month for him to come clean.<ref name=Gilmour-66>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=66}}</ref> At the time of their marriage Licy was a student of [[psychoanalysis]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de/italien_biografien.html|title=Psychoanalytikerinnen in Italien|language=German|work=Psychoanalytikerinnen. Biografisches Lexikon.|author=Brigitte Nölleke|accessdate=2023-06-27}}</ref> They first lived with Tomasi's mother in Palermo, but the incompatibility between the two women soon drove Licy back to [[Latvia]].<ref>[http://www.psychoanalytikerinnen.de/italien_biografien.html Alessandra Tomasi di Lampedusa] at psychoanalytikerinnen.de</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=67–68}}</ref> Through the rest of the 1930s, he lived largely in Palermo and she variously in [[Riga]] or [[Stomersee]]; typically she made an annual winter visit to Palermo and he made a summer visit to the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]].<ref name=Gilmour-69>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=69}}</ref> Licy began practising as a psychoanalyst in 1936.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aspi.unimib.it/collections/entity/detail/149/ |title=Alessandra Wolff Stomersee Tomasi di Palma, princess of Lampedusa |language=Italian |accessdate=2023-06-30| work = ASPI - Archivio Storico della psicologia italiana | publisher=University of Milano-Bicocca }}</ref>

In June 1934 Tomasi di Lampedusa's father died, and he inherited his princely title.<ref name=Gilmour-70>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=70}}</ref> According to his widow, shortly after this he first conceived his future novel ''[[The Leopard]]''.<ref name=Gilmour-129>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=129}}</ref> Originally his plan was to have the entire novel occur over the course of one day, similar to the famous modernist novel by [[James Joyce]], ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''.<ref name=Gilmour-129 />

He was briefly called back to arms in 1940,<ref name=Gilmour-73>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=73}}</ref> but, as the owner of a hereditary agricultural estate,{{citation needed|date=June 2023|reason=no citation for this being the cause of his discharge}} was soon sent home to take care of its affairs.<ref name=Gilmour-73 /> He served again very briefly in January 1942, but was sent home because of [[periostitis]] in his right leg.<ref name=Gilmour-73 /> He and his mother took refuge in [[Capo d'Orlando]], first with his Piccolo cousins and then in a place of their own; Licy had fled the Baltic to escape the heavy fighting there, initially settling in Rome. They were reunited in [[Ficarra]], but again his mother and Licy failed to get along; when the war ended for Italy, the couple headed for Palermo while his mother first remained in Ficarra, then went back to Capo d'Orlando.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=79–83}}</ref>

The people closest to Tomasi all survived the war, but the Lampedusa palace in Palermo did not;<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/arts/29iht-booktue.1.14826755.html|title=Essay: Lampedusa's 'The Leopard,' fifty years on|newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 July 2008|last1=Donadio|first1=Rachel}}</ref> it was a near-ruin from [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] bombing. Although some of Tomasi's writing suggests that the destruction was total, they were able to salvage much of the furniture and nearly all of Tomasi's extensive library. Enough remained of the building that Tomasi's mother lived out the last year of her life in the remnant, dying in 1946.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=79–86}}</ref>

In Palermo, Tomasi and Licy first rented a furnished apartment in an old, poorer quarter of Palermo. After a little less than two years, he gave up any serious hope of restoring the Palazzo Lampedusa, though the loss weighed on him till the end of his life;<ref name=Gilmour-83>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=83}}</ref> he then purchased the nearby house at number 28 Via Butera, a well-architected older house, even a "palace," but in what was by then a slum district.<ref name=Gilmour-89>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=89}}</ref> In the immediate post-war years, Licy had her psychoanalytic patients, and was by this time vice president of the [[Italian Society of Psychoanalysts]], which meant she spent a good deal of time in Rome.<ref name=Gilmour-83 /> For about two years beginning in late 1944, Tomasi served as president of the Palermo provincial committee of the [[Italian Red Cross]]; he resigned in March 1947, unable to cope with the "dark intrigues" (his words) that interfered with so many projects in Sicily.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=84–86}}</ref> On the whole, this was a dark period for Tomasi, lightened somewhat by his continuing visits to his Piccolo cousins in Capo d'Orlando,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=82–88}}</ref> where his cousin Lucio remained his closest intellectual friend.<ref name=Gilmour-78>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=78}}</ref>

In 1953 he began to spend time with a group of young intellectuals, one of whom was future literary critic [[Francesco Orlando (critic)|Francesco Orlando]],<ref name=Gilmour-108>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=108}}</ref> and another of whom was Tomasi's distant cousin <ref>{{cite news |last1=McAuley |first1=James |title=StyleHome The Oldest Money: Inside Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's Sicilian Palazzo |url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/home-decor/a29995509/leopard-author-giuseppe-di-lampedusa-sicily-home/ |access-date=2023-06-29 |work=Town and Country |date=December 2019}}</ref> [[Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi|Gioacchino Lanza]],<ref name=Gilmour-108 /> with whom he developed such a close relationship that in 1956 he legally adopted him.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=142–144}}</ref> Their conversations soon turned into an intensive series of classes taught by Tomasi. He taught Orlando English, which Orlando appears to have picked up remarkably rapidly, and then began a series of classes on European literature. Tomasi's notes for these classes were the most extensive piece of writing he ever did; they included a 1000-page critical history of English literature from [[Bede]] to [[Graham Greene]], including an effort to place the various writers in their historical-political contexts.<ref name=Gilmour-109>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=109}}</ref> This was followed by a less formal course on French literature and some less formal studies (Goethe, Spanish literature, Sicilian history) with individual members of the group.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=118–122, 133}}</ref>

Tomasi travelled in 1954 with his cousin, the poet Lucio Piccolo, to [[San Pellegrino Terme]] to attend a literary conference; Piccolo had been invited on the basis of his recently published poetry and brought Tomasi as a guest.<ref name=Gilmour-125-126>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=125–126}}</ref> Also attending were, among others, [[Eugenio Montale]],<ref name=Gilmour-125-126 /> [[Emilio Cecchi]],<ref name=Gilmour-125-126 /> and [[Maria Bellonci]].{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Upon returning from this trip he commenced writing ''Il Gattopardo'' (''[[The Leopard]]''). In 1955 he wrote, "Being mathematically certain that I was no more foolish [than Lucio], I sat down at my desk and wrote a novel."<ref name=Gilmour-127>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=127}}</ref>

By June 1955 he had completed a version of the first chapter, conforming to his original intent of a story set in a single 24-hour period in 1860.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=129–130}}</ref> He then digressed to write the first chapter of a projected autobiography; this chapter was published posthumously as "The Places of My Early Childhood."<ref name=Gilmour-130>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=130}}</ref> He then returned to writing the novel.<ref name=Gilmour-131>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=131}}</ref> Initially, few people around him were aware of any of this: the large amounts of time he spent alone were now spent at his writing desk.<ref name=Gilmour-132>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=132}}</ref> He did finally show the work in progress to most of his close associates in early 1956.<ref name=Gilmour-139>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=139}}</ref> For the brief remainder of his life he would alternate between expanding and revising the novel and working on various shorter works.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=155 ''et. seq.''}}</ref>

During his life, the novel was rejected by the two publishers to whom Tomasi submitted it. The published novel would eventually have eight chapters; in May 1956, he sent a four-chapter typescript to [[Arnoldo Mondadori Editore|Mondadori]] in Milan.<ref name=Gilmour-140-141>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=140–141}}</ref> That summer he wrote two more chapters and in October he sent these to Mondadori as well.<ref name=Gilmour-140-141 /> Mondadori rejected the novel in December 1956, although their rejection left open the possibility of considering a future version of the same work.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=141–142}}</ref> In early 1957 he wrote two more chapters, revised those he had already written,<ref name=Gilmour-151>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=151}}</ref> and sent typescripts to several people.<ref name=Gilmour-151 /> With Tomasi's permission, Francesco Orlando sent a copy to literary agent {{ill|Elena Croce|it}}, daughter of [[Benedetto Croce]], leaving the author anonymous.<ref name=Gilmour-159>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=159}}</ref> Another recipient, bookseller and publisher Fausto Flaccovio, liked the book but was not in the business of publishing fiction; he suggested sending it to [[Elio Vittorini]],<ref name=Gilmour-151 /> unsurprisingly this rather traditional novel did not appeal to modernist Vittorini, who found it "rather old-fashioned" and "essayish".<ref name=Gilmour-158>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=158}}</ref>

Eventually, the copy sent to Croce bore fruit, but not in Tomasi's lifetime. In 1957 Tomasi di Lampedusa was diagnosed with lung cancer; he died on 23 July in Rome.<ref>[https://palermo.repubblica.it/societa/2017/07/23/news/l_ultima_beffa_al_gattopardo_sulla_lapide_c_e_una_data_di_morte_sbagliata-171456343/ "L'ultima beffa al "Gattopardo", sulla lapide c'è una data di morte sbagliata"] [The latest joke on the ''Leopard'', on the tombstone is a wrong death date] by Giusi Spica, 23 July 2017, ''[[La Repubblica]]''</ref> Following a [[requiem]] in the [[Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio|Basilica del Sacro Cuore di Gesù]] in Rome, he was buried three days later in the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] [[Catacombe dei Cappuccini|cemetery of Palermo]].<ref>[https://cimiteripalermo.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dscn0733.jpg Photo] of his gravestone</ref>

His novel was published the year after his death.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>  {{ill|Elena Croce|it}} had sent it to the writer [[Giorgio Bassani]], who brought it to the publisher [[Feltrinelli (publisher)|Feltrinelli]]. On 3 March 1958, the publisher [[Feltrinelli (publisher)|Feltrinelli]] contacted Licy to make arrangements to publish the novel.<ref name=Gilmour-159 /> ''Il Gattopardo'' was quickly recognized as a great work of Italian literature.<ref name="A place in the sun">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/03/featuresreviews.guardianreview22|title=A place in the sun|newspaper=The Guardian |date=3 May 2003}}</ref> It was published in November 1958, and became a bestseller, going through 52 editions in less than six months.<ref name=Gilmour-162>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=162}}</ref> In 1959 Tomasi di Lampedusa was posthumously awarded the prestigious [[Strega Prize]] for the novel.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://brecha.com.uy/aristocratas-obreros-y-escritores/ |title=Aristócratas, obreros y escritores |date=6 September 2019 |website=[[Brecha (newspaper)|Brecha]] |language=es }}</ref>

==Works==
Tomasi did little public writing before the last few years of his life. He maintained a [[commonplace book]] (mostly in French, but also with passages in English and Italian; this appears to have been compiled mainly in the 1920s)<ref name=Gilmour-41>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=41}}</ref> and a laconic [[diary]]<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=132–133, 143}}</ref> in which he often noted where he visited, what films he saw, etc.;<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=98, 100}}</ref> in 1926-1927 he published three articles of literary criticism in ''Le Opere e i Giorni'', a little magazine associated with [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] and [[Luigi Pirandello]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=40, 43–44}}</ref> He also wrote, but made no attempt to publish, several other short pieces about literature.<ref name=Gilmour-42>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=42}}</ref> He took photographs when he travelled, but none of them rose above the level of tourist snapshots.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=45}}</ref>

In the mid-1950s he wrote extensive notes (not originally intended for publication) on European literature, including a 1000-page critical history of English literature from [[Bede]] to [[Graham Greene]].<ref name=Gilmour-109 />

His novel ''[[The Leopard|Il Gattopardo]]'' (''The Leopard'' ) follows the family of its title character, the Sicilian nobleman Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, through the events of the Risorgimento.<ref name="A place in the sun"/> Perhaps the most memorable line in the book is spoken by Don Fabrizio's nephew, Tancredi, urging unsuccessfully that Don Fabrizio abandon his allegiance to the disintegrating [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]] and ally himself with [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] and the [[House of Savoy]]: "Unless we ourselves take a hand now, they'll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change",<ref name=Tancredi-quote>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057091/quotes Memorable quotes for ''Il Gattopardo''], ''The Internet Movie Database''</ref> an approach to politics that has become known as the [[di Lampedusa strategy]].<ref>Judith Bessant (2 March 2012), "[https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=d813c182-08ca-4e40-bbd9-57ddcd5584a4&subId=564390 Submission to the Senate Select Committee on the 'Future of Work and Workers']". Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers</ref> The point-of-view character, Don Fabrizio, explicitly rejects this view, and despite the name "di Lampedusa strategy" there is little reason to think the author himself endorsed it.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour |1988|page=179}}</ref>

The title is rendered in English as ''The Leopard'', but the Italian word ''gattopardo'' refers to the African [[serval]], native not far from Lampedusa, in Northern Africa. ''Il gattopardo'' may be{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} a reference to a wildcat that was hunted to extinction in Italy in the mid-19th century – just as Don Fabrizio was dryly contemplating the indolence and decline of the Sicilian aristocracy.

In 1963 ''[[The Leopard (1963 film)|Il Gattopardo]]'' was made into a film, directed by [[Luchino Visconti]] and starring [[Burt Lancaster]], [[Alain Delon]], and [[Claudia Cardinale]]; it won the [[Palme d'Or]] at the [[Cannes Film Festival]].

Tomasi also wrote some lesser-known works: ''I racconti'' (''Stories'', first published 1961), including the novella ''[[The Professor and the Siren]]'', and the first chapter of an unfinished novel, ''I gattini ciechi'' ("The Blind Kittens");<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=149–151}} gives a synopsis of the intended plot of ''I gatinni ciechi''.</ref> ''Le lezioni su Stendhal'' (''Lessons on [[Stendhal]]'', privately published in 1959, published in book form in 1977); and ''Invito alle lettere francesi del Cinquecento'' (''Introduction to sixteenth-century French literature'', first published 1970). In 2010, a collection of his letters were published in English as ''Letters from London and Europe''. His perceptive commentaries on English and other foreign literatures make up a greater part of his works by volume than does his fiction.

== Views on politics and literature ==
Tomasi's political views are not easily pigeonholed. He was a self-declared [[monarchist]] who declined the [[Monarchist National Party]]'s request that he offer his candidacy in 1948 for the [[Senate of the Republic (Italy)|Italian Senate]] and actively chose not to join that party;<ref name=Gilmour-96>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=96}}</ref> he was generally critical of both the [[House of Bourbon#Bourbons of Spain and Italy|Bourbon]] monarchs who had ruled the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]] and their successors, the [[House of Savoy|Savoyard]] monarchs who ruled the [[Kingdom of Italy]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=179–184}}</ref> His dissent from the typical views one would expect of a monarchist was even more dramatic in some matters not affecting Sicily: he preferred [[Oliver Cromwell]] to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]<ref name=Gilmour-57>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=57}}</ref> and the [[Jacobins]] to [[Louis XVI]], of whom he wrote that no one in history had more deserved to have his head cut off.<ref name=Gilmour-57 />

Tomasi despised Sicilian [[liberalism|liberals]] as corrupt and ineffective<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=35–36}}</ref> (though he had at least a grudging admiration for British liberals<ref name=Gilmour-56>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=56}}</ref>) and initially admired the [[Italian fascism|Italian fascists]], though he never particularly threw in his lot with them and was away from Italy more during the fascist era than at any other time.<ref name=Gilmour-35 /> In the 1950s, he referred to one of Mussolini's works as an "encyclopaedia of ignorance and conceit."<ref name=Gilmour-120>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=120}}</ref> He was sympathetic to the [[Jansenism|Jansenists]] and to English Catholics such as [[Graham Greene]],<ref name=Gilmour-97>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=97}}</ref> one of his favorite contemporary writers,<ref name=Gilmour-97 /> but also to the English [[Puritanism|Puritans]];<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=57, 112}}</ref> the poet [[John Milton]] was another of his favorites.<ref name=Gilmour-112>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=112}}</ref>

As remarked above, when Tancredi in ''The Leopard'' says, "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change,"<ref name=Tancredi-quote /> there is no reason to believe that he is speaking for the author. Tomasi's pessimism about Sicily,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=171–177}} provides a litany of examples of Tomasi's and ''The Leopard''<nowiki></nowiki>'s pessimism about Sicily.</ref> and his regret over what he sees as his homeland's corruption and "irredeemability" is tempered by a sense of its grandeur.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=177–178}}</ref> As for the causes of Sicilian "irredeemability," the novel spreads the blame widely. The Savoyard Piedmontese are presented as naive about the South, full of plans that will never match the reality of the region,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=178, 181}}</ref> while the book's main representative of the old Bourbon regime, Don Fabrizio's brother-in-law Màlvica, is a fool.<ref name=Gilmour-178>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=178}}</ref> In his biography of Tomasi, [[David Gilmour (historian)|David Gilmour]] sees Tomasi as criticising the Risorgimento ([[Unification of Italy]]) "from both sides, from the viewpoints of both [[Antonio Gramsci|Gramsci]]…," describing the failure of the revolutionaries to truly ally with the peasants, "…and the Bourbons," describing a unified Italy's substitution of even worse elements into the island's elite.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=183–184}}</ref>

Upon publication of ''The Leopard'', [[Elio Vittorini]] (who had rejected an earlier draft of the book for his own press), [[Alberto Moravia]], and [[Franco Fortini]], among others, condemned the book as "[[right-wing politics|right-wing]];" in Moravia's words, it expressed ruling-class "ideas and view of life." The equally leftist [[Louis Aragon]] vehemently disagreed, seeing it as a "merciless" criticism of that class;<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=187–188}}</ref> many among the surviving Sicilian nobility certainly saw it as such, and were scandalized that one of their own could write such a thing.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=190}}</ref>

Tomasi read broadly in English, French, German, Italian, and later Spanish and (to a lesser extent) Russian. He owned 1,100 books on French history, including keeping up to date on the then-current work of [[Fernand Braudel]] and the [[Annales school|''Annales'' school]].<ref name=Gilmour-57 /> Similarly, his reading in Italian history continued through [[Federico Chabod]] and [[Adolfo Omodeo]].<ref name=Gilmour-71>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=71}}</ref> He listened to a fair amount of music, both in live performance and recordings, but never had anything like the interest in music he had for the written word or theatre,<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=100}}</ref> and often criticized how Italian operas that were adapted from plays "deformed" the works by oversimplification.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=100–101}}</ref> Not that he demanded that all literature be deep and difficult. Although his course on English literature included [[James Joyce]] and [[T.S. Eliot]],<ref name=Gilmour-108/><ref>Joyce and Eliot were, of course, respectively Irish and American, rather than English.</ref> it also covered thrillers (which he traced back to the lesser [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] tragedies<ref name=Gilmour-39 />) and detective novels (he considered [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] and [[G. K. Chesterton]] to be the best writers of the latter genre)<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=116–117}}</ref> and he was a regular filmgoer: even while writing ''The Leopard'' he went to the cinema two or three times a week; one of the films he particularly liked during that period was the [[Walt Disney|Disney]]-produced ''[[20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film)|20,000 Leagues Under the Sea]]''.<ref name="Gilmour-132"/>

As a reader, in maturity Tomasi came to prefer (in Gilmour's words) "the implicit over the explicit,"<ref name=Gilmour-41 /> though he acknowledged that his own novel, ''The Leopard'', fell more into the latter category.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=122, 139}}</ref> He liked English humour (including the use of humour in otherwise serious works<ref name=Gilmour-124>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=124}}</ref>), especially self-deprecating humour and understatement, and saw [[Samuel Johnson]] as the epitome of Englishness.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=53–54}}</ref> He generally rejected elaborate critical apparatus and theory, but was very interested in comparing and contrasting writers, or looking into why particular works were more appreciated in one time or place than another,<ref name=Gilmour-107/> or how writers in different eras had handled the same themes.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=109–110}}</ref> And he was not afraid to make judgements. Much though he loved Shakespeare, he found roughly eighty of his sonnets quite weak (and some of those absolutely "worthless"); at the other extreme he found forty of them "among the finest things in world literature."<ref name=Gilmour-110>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=110}}</ref> He considered [[Charles Dickens]] "a demi-God" but still confessed to being exasperated by his sentimentalism.<ref name=Gilmour-114>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=114}}</ref>

In French literature he saw [[Montaigne]] as a figure comparable to Shakespeare for his ideas, even if expressed very differently: perceptive, compassionate, sceptical, irreligious but understanding of others' religious feelings, persistent in "dismantling the human psyche."<ref name=Gilmour-119>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=119}}</ref> He considered the fact that Montaigne's writings had been roundly disliked by Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini to be entirely in Montaigne's favour (although he conjectured that the latter two hadn't actually bothered to read him).<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=119–120}}</ref> He also loved [[Stendhal]] and agreed with [[André Gide]] that two of Stendhal's works&mdash;''[[The Red and the Black]]'' and ''[[The Charterhouse of Parma]]''&mdash;were the two strongest contenders for being the best novel in any language; he was especially impressed by how concise Stendhal could be.<ref>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|pp=120–121}}</ref>

In poetry, he favoured [[John Keats]] and [[Giacomo Leopardi]].<ref name=Gilmour-123>{{harvnb|Gilmour|1988|p=123}}</ref> Despite his admiration for Leopardi, he saw Italy in general as anti-literary, wanting from a book either that it be "exciting and thoughtless" or so boring that its purchase constituted a performative sacrifice.<ref name=Gilmour-123 /> He lamented the lack of humour in most Italian literature,<ref name=Gilmour-123 /> and felt that many Italian writers were either narrow and provincial or wrote about places and things they knew only superficially.<ref name=Gilmour-124 />

==Legacy==
The [[Asteroid belt|main-belt]] [[asteroid]] [[14846 Lampedusa]] is named after him.

On the occasion of the 14th edition of the [[Rome Film Festival]], the docufilm ''Die Geburt des Leoparden'', directed by Luigi Falorni, was screened. A journey to discover the life of the last Prince of Lampedusa told by the voices and testimonies of loved ones.

In 2019 Canadian novelist [[Steven Price (writer)|Steven Price]] published a novelized biography of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa entitled ''Lampedusa''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kolbe |first1=Laura |title=''Lampedusa'' Review: Spotting the Leopard – A historical novel about the Sicilian prince who wrote a superb work of fiction about the birth of Italy|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/lampedusa-review-spotting-the-leopard-11572016191?mod=djembooks|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=25 October 2019}}</ref>

== Titles ==
[[File:Coat of arms of the Family of Tomasi.svg|thumb|upright|Arms of the Tomasi family]]

His full title was:

'''''[[Don (honorific)|Don]]'' Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma, 13th Baron of Montechiaro, Marquess and Baron of Torretta, and [[Grandee|Grandee of Spain]] of the First Class'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=TOMASI DI LAMPEDUSA |url=http://www.genmarenostrum.com/pagine-lettere/letterat/Tomasi%20di%20Lampedusa.htm |access-date=2022-10-02 |website=Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Mediterranea}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Gilmour|authorlink=David Gilmour (historian)|title=The Last Leopard: A life of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa|publisher=Pantheon|publication-place=New York|date=1988|isbn=0679401830}}
* Loup Odoevsky Maslov, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa - une biographie, Séguier, Paris, 2025. ISBN 978-2-38636-033-6

==Further reading==
* Margareta Dumitrescu, ''Sulla parte VI del Gattopardo. La fortuna di Lampedusa in Romania'', Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania, 2001.
* [[Gérard Gefen|Gefen, Gérard]] (2001) ''Sicily, Land of the Leopard Princes.'' Tauris Parke.
* Giuseppe Leone, "''Il Gattopardo'' orgoglio di un'isola, pregiudizio di una cultura – Il romanzo di Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa fra caso letterario e revisionismo storico", ''Il punto stampa'', Lecco, January 1997.
*[https://www.economist.com/moreover/1998/10/22/changing-things-so-everything-stays-the-same "Changing things so everything stays the same"], ''[[The Economist]]'', October 22, 1998.
* [https://archive.today/20121209132219/http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=bio&scheda=tomasidilampedusa Biography of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896–1957)] on RAI International online
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080330094546/http://movies.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1215461.php "The Role of Leadership in the Novel ''The Leopard''" (1958, Lampedusa)](After clicking on link, scroll down page)

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa}}
*{{wikiquote-inline}}
{{Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa}}
{{Strega Prize}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomasi Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe}}
[[Category:Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa| ]]
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:Italian historical novelists]]
[[Category:Italian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Dukes in Italy]]
[[Category:Grandees of Spain]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Lazio]]
[[Category:Italian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Italian male short story writers]]
[[Category:Nobility from Palermo]]
[[Category:Sicilian princes]]
[[Category:Writers from Palermo]]
[[Category:Strega Prize winners]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian novelists]]
[[Category:Italian male novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:Tomasi di Lampedusa family|Giuseppe]]