
Alex Went
The noble house of Salina is presided over by the larger-than-life Don Fabrizio, the very incarnation of his family's ancient coat of arms: the Leopard. Patrician, paterfamilias, astronomer, bon viveur, he is a renaissance man out of his time. Disappointed in his own children, he lavishes affection instead on his nephew Tancredi, whose life and love he hopes to influence. Tancredi, alas, is possessed by a romantic spirit of independence that sees him firstly join the ranks of Garibaldi (whose 1860 invasion of Sicily is counterintuitively supported by Fabrizio), and then fall hopelessly into the arms of Angelica, the beautiful daughter of the somewhat provincial local mayor. With the destiny of his own family and lineage slipping out of his control, Don Fabrizio consoles himself with his telescope and his ruminations on Sicily, death, and love.