Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote one novel. The Sicilian nobleman completed the manuscript in 1957, and died later that year, at age 60. The Leopard was published posthumously, in 1958, and went on to become one of the top-selling and most highly regarded books to come out of Italy. It tells the story of an aristocratic Sicilian family, the Salinas, who grapple with the political and social upheaval that took place during Italy’s reunification in the 1860s, a period known as the Risorgimento. In 1963, Luchino Visconti directed the movie adaptation of The Leopard, an epic masterpiece starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and the young Claudia Cardinale. Netflix is now sending a six-part limited series our way, the passion project of Tom Shankland, who also directs. —Jack Sullivan