Soldier, spy, diplomat, writer, adventurer, chiefly remembered from his autobiography, which has established his reputation as the most famous erotic hero. Casanova's memoirs are a fascinating and perhaps unreliable account of his adventures with 122 women - according to his own counts - but they also provide an intimate portrait of the manners and life in the 18th century.
"I saw that everything in the world that is famous and beautiful,
if we rely on the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists,
always loses when we go to see it and examine it up close."
Born into a family of Venetian actors, Giacomo Casanova studied for
the priesthood as a young man, at a Seminary in Padua. Expelled for
his licentious activities, he returned to Venice by way of a
secretariship to a Cardinal in Rome - from which he was promptly
fired, amid scandal.
Back in his home town, Casanova supported himself by conning the
local nobility with a mixture of magic tricks, fake alchemy and
vague occult mysticism. Rather too successful at this, he was
convicted of witchcraft by the Inquisition in 1755, and imprisoned
in the Doge's palace.
He managed to escape and flee to France, where his skill in
self-publicity really began to shine. A sensationalised account of
his story appeared as a pamplet which led to a sudden popularity.
Styling himself 'Jacques Casanova, the Chevalier de Seingalt' he
made a small fortune establishing a lottery.
This established a pattern for Casanova of travelling to a new
country, re-mythologising himself and his history, making and then
losing fortunes. In his time, he encountered such luminaries as
Pope Clement XIII (1760), Voltaire (1760), Rousseau and Mozart
(1787). His legacy was ensured by the publication of his "Histoire
de Ma Vie" - a document better regarded for its portrait of the
social history of the Enlightenment period in continental Europe,
than for its strict biographical accuracy.
Once more impoverished, Casanova ended his days as the librarian to
the Count of Waldstein in the castle of Dux, Bohemia (now Duchcov,
Czech Republic). He died, aged 73, almost forgotten.
"I have lived as a philosopher, and die as a Christian."
"These memoirs are compulsive reading... they are the work not only
of a highly accomplished seducer but of a literary artist of the
highest talents." -- J. H. Plumb, New York Times Book Review
"Trask has written a version in an English fully contemporary yet
remarkably Italian in sensibility. With admirable restraint and
refinement, he has conveyed the zest and sensuous delight of the
original." -- National Book Award Citation
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