The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History by Jamie Mackay

Author:Jamie Mackay [Mackay, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786637734
Google: sDwzEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2021-11-15T23:28:39.897448+00:00

Chevalley, an ardent patriot, struggles to hide his exasperation with the Leopard’s stubbornness. ‘Prince,’ he asks incredulously, ‘do you seriously refuse to do all in your physical power to alleviate, to attempt to remedy the state of physical squalor, of blind moral misery in which this people of yours lies?’12 Don Fabrizio, though, ignores his guest’s concerns and instead continues his diatribe, using the opportunity to cast his now infamous judgement of the Sicilian character:

You’re a gentleman, Chevalley, and I consider it a privilege to have met you; you are right in all you say; your only mistake was saying ‘the Sicilians must want to improve’ … the Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect; their vanity is stronger than their misery, every invasion by outsiders, whether so by origin or, if Sicilian, by independence of spirit, upsets their illusion of achieved perfection, risks disturbing their satisfied waiting for nothing; having been trampled on by a dozen different peoples, they think they have an imperial past which gives them the right to a grand funeral.13

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