Portland Public Library

Adventurer, the life and times of Giacomo Casanova, Leo Damrosch

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-406) and index

individual biography

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Adventurer

bibliography

1267751629

Leo Damrosch

the life and times of Giacomo Casanova

"This book aims to tell the quite sensational story of Casanova's life in greater depth, and with fuller use of his writings and modern commentaries, than has previously been done. It's not "new" in the sense of locating hitherto unknown material, and it doesn't advance any theoretical agenda. Instead it is a comprehensive reconsideration of the issues involved in the story of someone who was not only a serial seducer--with disturbing implications at the present time that previous biographers have largely ignored--but also a gambler, con man, and practitioner of magic. Casanova's brilliant memoir, entitled The Story of My Life, needs to be carefully questioned at many points where he can be suspected of exaggeration or outright invention. Damrosch also places him fully in the multiple subcultures he inhabited, including libertinism in thought as well as action, and also his experience as an "adventurer," that need to be clarified for modern readers. The author has drawn much more extensively on Casanova's non-autobiographical writings than previous biographers have done"--, Provided by publisher

Life and times of Giacomo Casanova