History of My Life, Vols. 3 & 4 [Paperback]

Giacomo Chevalier de Seingalt Casanova (Author), Willard R. Trask (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1997

Volumes 3 and 4 offer some of the most extraordinary episodes in Casanova's extraordinary life, including his liaison with the nun M. M., and his flight from the State Inquisitor's prison—each in its own way a feat of singular dash and daring.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Trask has written a version in an English fully contemporary yet remarkably Italian in sensibility. With admirable restraint and refinement, he has conveyed the zest and sensuous delight of the original.

(National Book Award Citation )

These memoirs are compulsive reading... they are the work not only of a highly accomplished seducer but of a literary artist of the highest talents.

(J. H. Plumb New York Times Book Review )

Trask expertly rendered this text into English in 1966, and his is the English version to read... Compulsively readable... Certainly, few books better convey the sheer, exuberant joy of being alive and young than these reminiscences.

(Michael Dirda New York Review of Books )

Casanova is unsurpassed as the recreator of the daily talking interests of 18th-century Europe. He ranges from slut to patrician, from closet to cabinet, waterfront to palace. He is superior to all other erotic writers because of his pleasure in news, in gossip, in the whole personality of his mistresses.

(V. S. Pritchett )

The Chevalier de Seingalt was a most remarkable man, who had some of the qualities of greatness... Has any novelist or poet ever rendered better than Casanova the passing glory of the personal life?—the gaiety, the spontaneity, the generosity of youth: the ups and downs of middle age when our character begins to get to us and we are forced to come to terms with it; the dreadful blanks of later years, when what is gone is gone. All that a life of this kind can contain Casanova put into his story. And how much of the world!—the eighteenth century as you get it in no other book; society from top to bottom; Europe from England to Russia, a more brilliant variety of characters than you can find in any eighteenth-century novel.

(Edmund Wilson )

Book Description

The complete memoirs of Casanova—available for the first time in paperback.

(2007)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 728 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1st edition (April 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801856639
• ISBN-13: 978-0801856631
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 18th Century Venice and the life and loves of Casanova, December 12, 2010

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History of My Life, Vols. 3 & 4 (Paperback)

Giacomo Casanova wrote his memoirs at the end of his life and they certainly read like a novel. However, the large amount of footnotes clearly show that this is all true. The places he describes did exist and historical records do show the details of his dramatic escape from an horrific prison. He lived from 1725 to 1798, a time when Venice was considered the pleasure capital of Europe although it was past its peak as a commercial power by that time. His memoirs, which he wrote towards the end of his life, not only give the reader a view of the manners and norms of Venetian society but also makes the reader appreciate the author as a person to be admired for his bravery, compassion and love of the women in his life.

Yes, Casanova did love his women, and he had many love affairs. During those times, when wealthy families only had enough dowry money for one daughter, other daughters were often sent to convents. These nunneries were hotbeds of intrigue and romance. There were secret letters smuggled out to lovers, private meetings and very romantic love affairs. Casanova was self reflective as he described his relationships and there is no doubt that he really did love each of the women he romanced. In those days each rendezvous entailed complicated communication involving secret letters carried by various "go-betweens" and days of waiting for answers which had the effect of increasing the level of desire. Masking was part of the culture then and there were strict social rules about certain masking days and about who was allowed to mask. All this added to the intrigue of the times.

Casanova fell in love over and over again, adored each woman he was with, and treated them well. Even after his ardor waned for a particular woman he still kept in touch and did everything he could for them to help them with their lives. There was no guilt. There were no regrets. He just embraced life as a big wide wonderful world. This particular volume speaks of his love affairs. And it also speaks of his several years of imprisonment and his dramatic escape. This escape goes on for pages and pages and reminded me of some swashbuckling movies I've seen which I know could only be pure fiction. However, there are real historical records that show that he did, in spite of one setback after another, climb out of windows and over rooftops to eventual freedom. And the fact that this really happened is absolutely amazing.

I loved this book, loved being transported back in time, and loved all the characters Casanova met along the way. And some day I might even read all eight of the volumes.

3.0 out of 5 stars and it goes on some more, October 14, 2011

By 

Gary W. Olson - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of My Life, Vols. 3 & 4 (Paperback)

Casanova's life was amazing, with enough adventure and intrigue to fill... well... volumes and volumes of text. Unfortunately, that's exactly what he decided to do, and while much of it is interesting and involving, after a while I just kept saying 'how much longer does this go on?' Certainly worth reading, but pace yourself or your head will go numb.