Le guépard is the French edition of Lampedusa's only novel, first published in 1958. It is set in Sicily in the 1860s, during Garibaldi's campaign and the unification of Italy. Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, a proud and weary aristocrat, sees the old order slipping away, while his lively nephew Tancredi adapts to the new one. The novel joins irony, sorrow and richly drawn scenery. It is admired as a great study of power, change and the passing of an age.