Ernest Hampson's introductory study stresses the extent to which the author's personal experience of Sicilian history influenced his work. He focuses on the novel's historical theme, that of the Risorgimento and its effects on the island's ruling classes, as well as on the work's key theme, that of death, the death of the protagonist, Don Fabrizio, and of the Sicilian aristocratic class which he embodies. A section is also devoted to the novel's complex use of symbolic imagery. This book is aimed at teachers and students of Italian as well as the general reader.