By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.

Don Fabrizio Corbera is the Prince of Salina in Sicily, during the Risorgimento; the unification of Italy. An irresistible giant of a man whose hands are like paws and who makes the ground tremble when he rises to his feet, the Prince is clear-eyed, intelligent and languid, aptly represented by the leopard on his coat of arms.

The Prince knows he must attempt to preserve what remains of his family’s feudal power in a period of political turmoil. He realises their best hope lies in his charming and resourceful nephew, Tancredi, who knows that "everything must change so that everything can stay the same".

The Leopard is a masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.

Episode 6: Tancredi has fallen in love with the beautiful Angelica, the daughter of the nouveau-riche commoner Don Calogero.

Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery Show less