A Brilliant Novel

From 2008: The New York Times on the 50th anniversary of "The Leopard." An excerpt:

Tancredi’s declaration lies at the heart of “The Leopard,” at once a loving portrait of a vanished society and a critique of its provincialism. “The Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect,” the prince tells a Piedmontese aristocrat who tries to persuade him to become a senator. “Their vanity is stronger than their misery; every invasion by outsiders ... upsets their illusion of achieved perfection.”