History of My Life

by Casanova, Giacomo; Trask, Willard R.; Norwich, John Julius

• ISBN13: 9780307265579
• ISBN10: 0307265579
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-06
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

The name of Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt (1725-98), is now synonymous with amorous exploits, and there are plenty of these, vividly narrated, in his memoirs. But Casanova was not just an energetic lover. In his time he was a diplomat, businessman, trainee priest, traveler, prisoner, magician, confidence man, gambler, professional entertainer, and charlatan. He financed business projects, organized lotteries, wrote opera libretti, and dabbled in high politics. Above all he was an autobiographer of enduring brilliance and subtlety who left behind him what is probably the most remarkable confession ever written. Casanova explored to the full all the possibilities eighteenth-century Venice offered by way of love and profit before being imprisoned, escaping from jail, and fleeing from the city to begin travels that took him across Europe. In Moscow and London, Berlin and Constantinople, he met the famous men and women of his timeCatherine the Great, Voltaire, Louis XV, Rousseauand recorded his encounters for the memoirs he wrote in retirement at the end of his life. History of My Lifeis by turns touching, thrilling, wonderfully comic, and quite irresistible. The present edition, which includes approximately one third of Casanova's enormous (and unfinished) book, contains all his major adventures and all his greatest affairs of the heart.

Author Biography

The name of Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt (1725-98), is now synonymous with amorous exploits, and there are plenty of these, vividly narrated, in his memoirs. But Casanova was not just an energetic lover. In his time, he was a diplomat, businessman, trainee priest, traveler, prisoner, magician, confidence man, gambler, professional entertainer, and charlatan. He financed business projects, organized lotteries, wrote opera libretti, and dabbled in high politics. Above all he was an autobiographer of enduring brilliance and subtlety who left behind him what is probably the most remarkable confession ever written. He lived in the Republic of Venice.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Select Bibliography	p. xxiii
Chronology	p. xxiv
Foreword	p. lxvii
	p. 1
Contents	p. 3
Preface	p. 15
	p. 189
	p. 265
	p. 413
	p. 569
	p. 653
	p. 727
	p. 775
	p. 823
	p. 957
	p. 1073
Textual Note
Biographical	p. 1173
The Publishing History of the Memoirs	p. 1177
Laforgue and the Text of the Memoirs	p. 1178
The New Text	p. 1183
Notes	p. 1186
Index	p. 1403
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