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More About the Author
Product Description
Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph
'Outstandingly good...Lampedusa has found a biographer worthy of
The Leopard'
The Leopard'
Ian Thomson, The Independent
'A triumph of fine writing: elegant, witty, concise - everything a
good biography should be.'
good biography should be.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent life of Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of one of the century's great novels The Leopard.
Gilmour has thoroughly researched this figure, by speaking to Di Lampedusa's adopted son and through the notebooks and diaries found in the ruins of the Palazzo Lampedusa, with all the skill of a detective.
Almost all of Di lampedusa's work cam in the last three year of his life, and it was no doubt difficult to make the life of this reclusive, shy character interesting but Gilmour manages it.
THanks to reading this, I have been able to return to the novel time and time again, each with fresh eyes. Highly recommended
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best literary biographies I have ever read, and I say that having re-read in the last year Nicholas Shakespeare's "Bruce Chatwin", Ellmann's "Oscar Wilde" and Johnson's "Lives of the Poets".
I'm not really exaggerating, since like works such as these, Gilmour's book combines a narrative of Lampedusa's life with pithy commentary on his literary works, and relevant comments on the social and historical context. What I think truly makes Gilmour's book a cut above other literary biographies is his seemingly total understanding of Italy, Sicily and Lampedusa's works. Written with full access to Lampedusa's archive (including items retrieved by the author himself from the bombed out shell of Lampedusa's former Palermo home, some forty years after the US air raid that put paid to things) Gilmour gets right under the skin of this incredible writer.
Coming in at just over 200 pages, this book has the virtue of being short (this itself a reflection of the fact that Lampedusa's day to day life was rather monotonous and his literary output pretty small). However, what Gilmour has to say he says with insight and authority, and this being a shorter biography it gives you plenty of energy left to go straight back into "The Leopard".
As for the title of another review above, was Lampedusa's a "wasted life"? Okay, so he only wrote one complete novel. But that happened to be the incomparable "The Leopard". 'Wasted' is hardly the first adjective that comes to my mind. Lampedusa could have written more, but into that one book he poured the experience and insight of a lifetime. Gilmour does full justice the man and his masterpiece.
I'm not really exaggerating, since like works such as these, Gilmour's book combines a narrative of Lampedusa's life with pithy commentary on his literary works, and relevant comments on the social and historical context. What I think truly makes Gilmour's book a cut above other literary biographies is his seemingly total understanding of Italy, Sicily and Lampedusa's works. Written with full access to Lampedusa's archive (including items retrieved by the author himself from the bombed out shell of Lampedusa's former Palermo home, some forty years after the US air raid that put paid to things) Gilmour gets right under the skin of this incredible writer.
Coming in at just over 200 pages, this book has the virtue of being short (this itself a reflection of the fact that Lampedusa's day to day life was rather monotonous and his literary output pretty small). However, what Gilmour has to say he says with insight and authority, and this being a shorter biography it gives you plenty of energy left to go straight back into "The Leopard".
As for the title of another review above, was Lampedusa's a "wasted life"? Okay, so he only wrote one complete novel. But that happened to be the incomparable "The Leopard". 'Wasted' is hardly the first adjective that comes to my mind. Lampedusa could have written more, but into that one book he poured the experience and insight of a lifetime. Gilmour does full justice the man and his masterpiece.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Superb biography of a most extraordinary writer, embodying a threnody for the aristocratic Europe which created our culture.
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