In literature the period of 1860 is depicted by the Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification; in a famous final scene prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer " …the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect …", by which and by other words the author underlines the problem for the Sicilians to change their old life-style while remaining in their island. The novel was adapted in the homonymous film The Leopard (1963 film) by Luchino Visconti, in which the actor Burt Lancaster played Prince Salina.