The Leopard........Chapters 5 -8

Comments?

I liked alot about the conclusion of this book. I loved the section about the priest Father Perrino. I liked the part about the ball. I especially liked the death of the Prince. However, I did not care for the last chapter. I would have preferred that the book ended with the death of the Prince. He said, after all, that the line ended with him. There was also an appendix with fragments and sonnets, but I did not really think that they added that much to the story.
--BJ

As for you, billiejean, the appendix was for me more of a completist's bit of work. I'm glad we had it, but it wasn't necessary.

I found the last chapter a contrast with the world that had gone on before and a depiction of the decay. The women growing old were not new, but they were different; how can that be?

Robert

I also felt like it was the decay of the family. I was especially affected by the stuffed Bendico, who I had loved. I think that maybe why I just did not care for that part.
--BJ

I found the final four chapters to be a brilliant solution to ending a novel that really concluded in chapter 4. Father Pirrone's visit home serves to underscore how the working classes were unsurprised by the lack of changes in the "new" Italy. The ball confirms that things have remained the same. I appreciated the author sharing Don Fabrizio's final reckoning of his blessings--his affection for Tancredi, the loving companionship of his dogs, the stone and water world of Donnafugata--and other moments of joy. To me it was telling that none of the titles or political changes mattered in the end. The vignette of the sisters in old age completed the picture. Their odd lot assortment of religious relics, purchased by Concetta even though she never believed in their value, was deemed to be as meaningless as the titles they no longer held. Bendico's brief re-animation was, to me, a fitting close for an interesting cast of characters that all eventually "found peace in a heap of livid dust."

This book just kept getting better and better. I was glad that there was a chapter devoted to Father Pirrone as I found myself drawn to him. As they say, "everyone has a story" and the reader wasn't let into his private world until Chapter 5. His long soliloquy in response to the herbalist's simple question was one of my favorite parts.

Loved the ball...the party that went on too long. And Chapter 7, "Death Of A Prince" just blew me away with its eloquence and pathos. At first, I too thought that would have been a fitting ending for the book, but on reflection, I believe the final chapter was a touch of brilliance to depict the final collapse of both a family and a way of life.