Casanova
The World of a Seductive Genius
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“Sexy, surprising, funny, insightful, and wildly entertaining” (Huffington Post)—the definitive biography of Giacomo Casanova, the impoverished boy who became the famous writer, notorious libertine, and self-invented genius in decadent eighteenth-century Europe.
Today, “Casanova” is a synonym for “great lover,” yet the real story of this remarkable figure is little known. A figure straight out of a Henry Fielding novel, Giacomo Casanova was erotic, brilliant, impulsive, and desperate for recognition; a self-destructive genius. Over the course of his lifetime, he claimed to have seduced more than one hundred women, among them married women, young women in convents, girls just barely in their teens, women of high and low birth alike.
Abandoned by his mother, an actress and courtesan, Casanova was raised by his illiterate grandmother, coming of age in a Venice filled with spies and political intrigue. He was intellectually curious and read forbidden books, for which he was jailed. He staged a dramatic escape from Venice’s notorious prison, I Piombi, the only person known to have done so. He then fled to France, ingratiated himself at the royal court, and invented the national lottery that still exists to this day. He crisscrossed Europe, landing for a while in St. Petersburg, where he was admitted to the court of Catherine the Great. He corresponded with Voltaire and met Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte—assisting them as they composed the timeless opera Don Giovanni. And he wrote what many consider the greatest memoir of the era, the twelve-volume Story of My Life.
Laurence Bergreen’s Casanova recounts this astonishing life in rich, intimate detail, and at the same time, paints a dazzling portrait of eighteenth-century Europe, filled with a cast characters from serving girls to kings and courtiers, “great fun for any history lover” (Kirkus Reviews).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this overstuffed, occasionally compelling, but ultimately lackluster recounting of the famed libertine's life, Bergreen (Columbus: The Four Voyages) gives much detail but little insight into the experiences of the man whose name became shorthand for seduction. Born in Venice in 1725 to two actors, Giacomo Casanova was a sickly child neglected by his parents. He did have brains, however, eventually studying for the priesthood in his teens, even as he discovered the pleasures of sex. Bergreen follows his protagonist across Europe, to Paris, St. Petersburg, and Prague, encountering figures high and low, including Voltaire and Don Giovanni librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. There is little assessment, however, just a retelling in intimate, and often laborious, detail of the events of Casanova's life especially his famous love life. One notable exception to the otherwise monotonous focus on Casanova's seductions comes in the chapter devoted to his incarceration and daring escape from the notorious prison I Piombi, after his arrest and conviction by the Inquisition. The episode reads like a brilliant spy novel. There is no end of fascinating, rich material here but Bergreen unfortunately does not make the most of it.
