Among the many curious incidents for which the Eighteenth Century will ever be famous, there are few more interesting and more suggestive than the escapes from the prisons of France and Italy, respectively, of Latude and Casanova. The lives and adventures of these two men form a most captivating narrative, as full of extraordinary incidents as a novel, and as instructive as a chapter of history. No work of fiction contains such thrilling, soul-stirring incidents as are related by the unfortunate man who, entering a prison a mere youth, left it a grey-headed, broken-down old man; no comedy has more humorous scenes than are depicted by that most reckless, worthless, and withal, entertaining scoundrel, Jacques Casanova, alias the Chevalier de Seingalt, who, for a short time, was a prisoner in the Piombi in Venice.
To the student of history the captivity endured by Latude and Casanova is more than ordinary interest, and the philosopher may also teach a lesson and point a moral from their lives.
To the reader who wishes simply to be moved or entertained, this volume will prove as interesting as the most marvelous works of fiction to be found in any language.
