Gamperaliya (English)

At a time when the classical novel familiar to most of us, was being rejected and discarded by some as an anchronism, two events of importance in the field of literature came to my notice. One of the these was the opportunity to read the novel ‘The Leopard” authored by a Sicilian aristocrat, Giuseppe di Lampedusa, a novel in the familiar classical tradition. It was a novel, which received accolades not only of Italian, but also of French, English and American critics and readers. The reasons for its unversal appeal was, I believe, the great depth and understanding and artistic skill shown in the presentation of the vicissitudes of a feudal class in a modernizing world, the microcosm of a feudal family, the ups and downs in their circumstances, and their joys and sufferings.
The other important event was publication of the Russian language translation of Martin Wickramasinghe’s novel “Gamperaliya”. What struck me was the close kinship of “Gamperaliya” in its theme, subject, high novelistic qualities and creative power to di Lampedusa’s novel, the first Italian edition of which was published in 1958, fourteen years after the publication of the first Sinhala edition of Martin Wickramasinghe’s “Gamperaliya”.