"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleasing, it is the reader who will have dictated it."

If this is not must reading then nothing is!, 29 Jul 1998
I wish I could give this work 6 stars and not just 5. In all 6 volumes of the Trask translation. Casanova shows a remarkable gift for writing from the heart even though he was progidy. The result is a vivid and fast moving recreation of the 18th century by a lover, a scholar and a rascal. What Casanova writes the reader feels and lives. He writes as if you are there with him and he makes you feel it is so. Casanova's story is of love, of life from peasants to kings, of risk-taking adventure, of politics, of cabalistic rites and charlatanism, of dupes and dullards and endless intrigues. It has the kind of excitement that fiction can only envy.

Casanova offers a rare and passionate view of his time, 13 Jun 1998
Giacomo Casanova's twelve volume memoir, History of My Life, provides a passionate and critical look into the 18th century. The term "Casanova" has become representative of frivolous love-making, however, the real man, Giacomo Casanova, was an artist, a scholar and a philosopher. His memoir reveals his desire for truth, as well as his love for women. Written during the years of the French Revolution, Casanova's memoir appeals to a wide range of book lovers. His stories are entertaining and fulled with adventure. For those interested in 18th century Europe, Casanova comments extensively on the customs and manners of all the social classes, especially in France. He gives charming descriptions of the Parisian streets, taverns, Catholic practices and even a detailed description on how to make hot chocolate (one of Casanova's favourite breakfast foods). Casanova occupied a unique place in society. Instead of trying to fit rigidly into one social class he explores the lives of the peasantry as well as the noblity, therefore, he offers a unique view of his time. Throughout his travels he reflects on universal aspects of human nature, focusing often, but not exclusively, on human sexual behaviour.

I have read Casanova's memoirs twice. The original Trask translation was only produced in a limited number.

"Who is that fat pig?", 03 Sep 2008
Casanova provides his readers with a twelve-page preface, which he wrote "because I want you to know me before you read me. Only in coffee-houses and inns do we converse with strangers." Giacomo would like to be more than a stranger to his readership and with these expurgated memoirs - I write of the Penguin edition - he more than succeeds. "I expect friendship, esteem and gratitude from my readers."

But who was Casanova? We all know his reputation, but what many people are not aware of are his great literary and intellectual interests. Often described as the world's first pure celebrity, he has reason to be remembered in a large number of areas of cultural pursuit. But more than anything, these memoirs demonstrate Casanova's sheer humanity: he is so full of contradictions.

They commence with his first memory, aged eight, and the strange events that attended a bleeding nose. But whilst he may have seemed a late developer in some respects, he demonstrated precocity at an early age. At eleven, he is already responding wittily in Latin to the lewd query of a visiting Englishman. In his late teens, and already a priest, he is cavorting with a number of women from both the underclass and the aristocracy, including a suspected castrato and girls aged eleven and twelve. But throughout the descriptions of his love-making he consistently claims that, "The sight of the pleasure I gave always made up four-fifths of my own."

In whatever scrapes he instigated, Casanova often employs clever wit or innocent humour to extricate himself. And despite the sympathy that his writing imbues in the reader, his is not by any means a wholesome character. As well as the continuous sexual infidelities, he freely admits thefts and frauds practised upon the weak-willed as well as the strong.

The roll-call of the famous people he met and with whom he conversed throughout his life is impressive, and for this reason alone his memoirs are a valuable insight into eighteenth-century European politics and social mores. Priest, soldier, businessman, writer, philosopher, libertine, swindler: there is so much to this man's life-story.

Casanova is a master of language. But the description of his imprisonment under the leads in Venice and his subsequent escape are quite confusing. And yet his sexual adventures can often be quite explicit. His words are replete with epigrams: "To reason well, one must be neither in love nor angry, for these two passions make us like wild beasts"; "A prejudiced intelligence reasons poorly"; "A people without superstition would be philosophical, and philosophers never want to obey."

Casanova remembers long and involved conversations from many years ago. I often wondered about their veracity. Their telling must be tainted by subsequent experiences, and yet the words he places into the mouths of his protagonists are not at all wholly sympathetic or flattering to him, so they must at least claim a kernel of truth. Later he tells us that, "I spent part of the night and the next writing down the three conversations I had with him [Voltaire]." The editor, in his introduction, explains that Casanova carried "great bundles of notes" with him. But where did Casanova keep his notes so safely whilst travelling the length and breadth of Europe?

And there is so much humour too! From the doctor who welcomed his return to town as he had made so much money from curing venereal disease the last time Casanova was there, to his asking a portly gentleman-stranger about a rather porky lady: "Who is that fat pig?", Casanova asked him. "Why, the wife of this fat pig" came the reply! Casanova is a good raconteur and such good company to the reader. His views about the results of the Empress Maria Teresa's urge to rid Vienna of the seventh sin are most amusing, as is his clever riposte to her son about the selling of titles.

Between chapters, the editor seeks to give some flavour of the parts he has omitted. But what appears inexplicable is that one of those parts includes his fateful years with Henriette, who the editor himself describes as "beautiful, cultured, intelligent, and witty, she aroused deeper feelings in Giacomo than perhaps any other woman." Another unfortunate gap appears in his return from Poland, where the visit to his mother in Dresden is omitted, as is his removal from Vienna, and his expulsion from Paris.

One of the most shameful aspects of this Penguin edition is the complete lack of an index. And the notes by the editor are not to be trusted either. Concentrating on the notes to Casanova's visit to London (chapter twenty), the editor is wrong about Saint James's Palace being totally destroyed by fire; Sophie-Charlotte was the wife of George III, not George II; and the three kingdoms are England, Scotland and Ireland (not Wales). There are more errors, and Penguin should make strenuous efforts to correct these if it wishes to maintain its reputation. (This edition was originally published by Marsilio in 2000.)

But the editor's introduction is good, providing the context for the writing of Casanova's autobiography. He explores Casanova's literary style - part history, part novel - and how he seduces his reader to be part of his circle of friends. He admits that providing an edited version of Casanova's vast memoirs is an almost impossible task as "the paths one might take are obviously very many". There is the standard Penguin `Note on the Text' as well as an explanatory note from the translators.

But why did Casanova stop writing them when he reached the year 1774, when he would have been fifty? (He lived to 1798.) Casanova wrote that, "Nature must abhor old age", for whilst age can easily procure pleasure, it can never give it. And yet, whilst his physical appearance might no longer tempt the ladies, his writings continue to provide pleasure to his readers centuries after his death.


Sad and funny and sexy, 14 Jun 2006
This book is so full of life I half expect to find it dancing around on my bookshelf. And it has so many merits that it is difficult to know where to start: essentially it is an account of a vanished period in time, and of different places, and a man who squeezed five times as much into his life as any normal human being. If only half the stories in it are a quarter true - well, the mind boggles: nuns, secret assignations, midnight gardens, transvestites. Quite apart from the astonishing adventures, it's a moving and sad account with a strong underpinning of philosophy. And in its way it's a morality story: sleeping with lots of women (and some men) really doesn't necessarily lead to happiness. If you haven't tried Casanova before this lively edition is a good place to start: you may well want to move onto the Willard Trask epic once you've finished this, but it would be a bit much to bite off at the beginning.

Sex and violence, 25 Jun 2003
The eight volumes of the great Venetian adventurer's memoirs are here reduced to a palatable 500 pages, and the result is a breathless and exhilirating read.

Casanova is a by-word for libidinous excess, and the book is full of his sexual athletics, ranging from his deflowerings of virgins, his bizarre encounter with a fake castrato, his fun with nuns, his liaisons with noble women and actresses, as well as his more unsettling predilections, some of which would have led to his inclusion in the child protection register today. But unlike other 18th-century chronicles of excess, the memoir is not merely pornographical. Casanova was a highly educated and cultivated figure. He bests a bemused Voltaire in discussions of poetry, and his chronicle is full of witty commentaries on 18th century geo-politics, human relations, metphysics, and art. He writes with superb humour. His descriptions of his periodic resort to alchemical and cabbalistic confidence tricks to defraud rich patrons and mistresses are hilarious. He recounts with delicate irony a rather serious conversation with a muslim theologian on the moral conundrum of masturbation. And his portraits of the movers and shakers of the age are lively, vivid and frequently irreverant.

Casanova was a controversialist. Imprisoned for obscure reasons in Venice, he recounts his daring escape and enforced exile. His frequent scrapes as a spy, adulterer and con artist make his exile an increasingly precarious affair, as he drains his stock of patient patrons dry. As the work progresses, his infamy precedes him, and Casanova roves across Europe, expelled from capital after capital. The work climaxes with his account of a duel with a senior Polish officer, leading to his expulsion from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which Casanova had fictionalised earlier as "The Duel". The tale is a locus classicus of 18th-century chutzpah, fool-hardiness, scandal and back-biting spite.

This is one of the great autobiographies. The extraordinary adventures of Casanova in themselves would divert the most thrill-hungry reader. But Casanova himself, apt to exaggerate and sometimes to appal, amoral and moralistic by-turns, Enlightened and reactionary, makes a novel, exhilirating, taxing, hilarious, companion.

The translation is reasonable, if, very occasionally, clunky, and the selections read well. The only real criticism is that the editors have shorn the account of much of its political intrigue, sometimes divesting Casanova's frequent encounters with the authorities of context. While this is a shame, and the editors underestimate readers' interest in this aspect of Casanova's milieu, it only marginally undermines one's enjoyment of this unique life.

The Best, 30 Jul 2008
I read a lot, and I really mean A LOT, but this is without any doubts one of the best books I have ever read. I just regret that it is actually just half of the original text, as it was "too long" and "not always written good enough" and so on, according to the editor. you can find there many useful notes, interesting preface and chronology of events, both in Casanova's life and of the history of the time he lived in. a brilliant book. intelligent and amusing at the same time; very rare combination.

Godly Goat, 09 Mar 2005
Delightful tales of wooing it is not.

If Middle Man that questions Casanova's talent, he should seek his influence in the libretto of Da Ponte's "Don Giovanni". I would personally congratulate myself if my name was Giacomo Casanova and had my name mentioned hundreds of years later, the heroic virtue of old (hysterophimia). Casanova translated Homer. Casanova's memory is extremely sharp. For example he says that Duchess of Crafton does not put white powder in her wig as is fashion. Casanova is interested in everything.

The philosophical Casanova is a exhilarating; the poetic Casanova is smooth and sensuous, his wit is eloquent, his politics and plots are full of Byzantine intrigues, his ideas utopically socialistic. He was a keen mathematician, a chemist, an alchemist, a gambler, an excellent interlocutor in conversation, he outwitted Voltaire and Frederick the Great; a conman, a never tiring traveller, a magician, a mason, a spy, a womaniser with dark black eyes, and a keen spender. This is the writer that the Middle Man does not want to embrace in their bibliography!

In his quote: "If what I have said has been pleas