Customer Reviews

History of My Life, Vols. 1-2

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Having only dabbled in the terrible Penguin abridged edition, I had no idea of the sheer heaven I would encounter when I picked this up at a used book fair.

Casanova is one astonishing man. He is a philosopher, man of reason, and man of God. He studies religion and is an abbot for a long stretch of his life. The pages are filled with his ruminations, observations, and quotes of literature ranging from Horace to Ariosto. Having a man this educated for author, in this time and place, would have alone made it worth reading.

But the scholarship just scratches the surface. He is also a notorious womanizer, probably the most (im)famous in the West. And the tales are endless, sublime, always something different, and delightfully understated. For a real hoot check out his trysts in carriages or the outrageous experience with cross-dressing castrato Bellino, who is really a woman (don't ask, just read Vol. 2).

But the real treat with this book is how GC can tie it all together with a storytelling verve that far outdistances most novelists. Every page is a fresh, ridiculous surprise that tugs the viewer along. He manages to constantly work in themes and ideas throughout the work, uniting something that would otherwise be a dizzying travelogue. The man's skill with wit, with anecdote, with the unexpected joke is remarkable (I love his anecdote of screwing up his big sermon). And the translation simply jumps off the page, whereas most translations from French read very mechanically.
"In Italy all is show" Barzini reminds us. Some have wondered whether all the show in this work is real or not. To them I say "Does it really matter?" When the show is this good, he could be plagiarizing half of it for all I care! Any fans of Italy, of the European Baroque era, or of wonderful wit and stories has to read this.

I started the abridged version in French, and kept thinking..."this *can't* be Casanova's writing; it's clunky, far from eloquent, and lacks style." Thankfully I was right. Though I downloaded the free version from project gutenberg (just do a google search), I was *so* impressed by this translation that I bought the hardcopy anyway.

All historical notes and translation notes aside, the content is fantastic. Casanova's philosophical musings are always interesting, whether you agree with them or not; his writing is that of one of the most intelligent, witty, and confidently masculine men I've ever had the pleasure of reading. What struck me most of all was his radically different mindset, which those who would call him "a seducer!! ahh!" would rather ignore. His success (if you can call it just that) with women was simply another byproduct of his way of thinking, which no doubt is the most interesting thing about Casanova.

This is one of the most personal autobiographies I've ever read. If anything can get you into this guy's head, it's this collection. Be warned, though...(it takes Casanova quite a few pages to issue this warning) the book is intended to be read by people who've already had ample failure and success; the story you might discuss at age 80 in a circle of people who remember exactly as you do what it was like to grow up whenever you grew up. It's honest, insightful, and gives away a whole lot of things that are best learned by experience.

Not that I agree with Casanova's disclaimer; I'm just fine reading it now. However, it's in there and it's only honest to make sure others know.

There's not much more to say. This autobiography is simply fantastic, and should keep me occupied for at least a few years.

Some people have lives that are filled with a certain drama and adventure from start to finish. As a young teenager, Casanova is already thinking, engaging people much older than him in serious conversation, plotting and scheming, and even taking enemies to court!

People often ask if Casanova's stories are embellished. I don't think so; he's too good of a writer, and too smart, and gives too many specific details on the surrounding circumstances and historical events. He wrote twelve volumes of this stuff - if he were making it up he would have become bored long before getting that far. His account of his time on earth rings true from start to finish, and believe me when I say: it is the story of a fascinating life told by a man of outstanding writing ability and social genius.

Casanova will come across to many readers as very self-absorbed. However, he clearly has a deep fascination for his characters and all of the people he comes into contact with. As a child he already had an intellect superior to many of the adults around him. As a man he still viewed each new relationship and circumstance with the fascination of a kid at the carnival.

If you like romance, history, intrigue, drama, with a smart and smart ass young man at the centre of it all narrating for you, you'll love this book.

(...)
Giacomo Casanova seduced 116 women and detailed his adventures in a massive autobiography written in the eighteenth century. He is the most famous womanizer in the world, a spy, a diplomat, an opera librettist, a mathematician, a poet, a cleric, a fugitive, a librarian, a gambler (he created the business of lottery), a magic practitioner conversant with the Jewish Kabbalah.

He spoke French, Italian, Latin, Greek and English. He translated Iliada in Italian He did not speak German, yet he spent the last fourteen years of his life in the Dax Palace of Count Waldstein in Bohemia. "The world greatest lover" as an old man was sexually impotent, and a broken dreamer. The servants of Count Waldstein made him suffer indignities, like using pages of his books as toilet paper. He had only the pleasure of remembering, which brought at the same time grief. German poet J.W. Goethe visited him

Casanova deeply believed in God and his faith sustained him. He never participated in an orgy and believed that pleasure should received and given equally. His publishers, Brockhaus, ironically were German, the only major language Casanova did not speak . He wrote 4554 pages in French, not Italian which was his native tongue. He died before he finished his memoirs in 1798, just as the nineteenth century was about to step in.

From now on, Casanova became an unending series of products. In 1821, a heavily edited German version was published for the puritan German audience. The German censorship raised difficulties.

French editions copied the German version. Brockhaus published in 1832 a French Edition, but French Censorship was even harsher than the German. So the French edition was published in Brussels, Belgium..

These editions even had text added that Casanova never wrote. Casanova was not recollecting his life. He was re-living it. So the original manuscript was withheld for more than 160 years. The final , original Casanova was published in February 1960. The American edition was published between 1966 and 1971 , an original translation of Willard Trask. The paper back edition is from John Hopkins University Press.

In age of Viagra and Howard Stern, Giacomo Casanova image is benign. He had the elegance to practice the true sexual emotional adventure, which is claimed by voluptuous ED (Erectile Dysfunctional) drug companies, Casanova was not a chemical automated button. He was witty conversationalist, a man with magic and an encyclopaedic mind.

Giacomo Casanova's 116 women record in 1700's pales in comparison to Bill Wyman, who claimed he slept with 2000 women during his time with the Rolling Stones.

[Casanova] is superior to all other erotic writers because of his pleasure in news, gossip, in... the whole personality of his mistresses. (V.S. Pritchet)


A search on Amazon.com for Casanova yielded 1,063 books, 131 videos, and among other , one software title: Casanova: The Duel of the Black Rose . It is a video game published in February 2005

The time has come for the software Casanovas. We can call a grid architecture or an Operating System or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, Casanova. No software is perfect. As it goes through release after release, it aims at a perfection that will never achieve.

As Casanova himself writes, unabridged and in the original manuscript:

My ill fortune nor less than my good proved to me that both in this physical world and in the moral world good comes from evil and evil comes from good.... The one thing necessary is courage, for strength without confidence is useless.

Casanova's "History" is an enthralling portrait of himself, his times, and his conquests. It is written in a chatty yet elegant style that seems bent on seducing the reader too. What is immediately obvious here is that Casanova was no ordinary Lothario but truly esteemed women and yearned for their approval as much as for their bodies. The memoir is also a priceless sketch of 18th life and mores, upper and lower classes, and politics both great and small. This book can't be recommended too highly.

I stumbled across volumes I & II and although I'm not much interested in autobiographies, nor am I much of a history buff, I thought it might be an interesting read. "Interesting" turned out to be a complete and total underestimation. The complete set (volumes 1 through 12) are a truly fascinating first-person account of life in the 18th century - specifically, the life of one of the world's greatest rakes, scoundrels, adventurers, and learned men. I'd only purchased the first book (I & II) and when I finished volume II, I was at a terrible loss because I couldn't find any of the remaining volumes - until Amazon came to the rescue.

Casanova was basically a "people person". He was truly interested in people and describes many in great detail. In his travels, he met with many whose names now fill the history books - Popes, Kings, Queens, and Empresses, and many who are totally lost to history - whores, con men, and card sharps. And, because he was primarily a people person, his accounts of places and events are particularly spare.

Casanova's accounts of his travels back and forth across the length and breadth of Europe are fascinating in of themselves. It is truly amazing to read his accounts and to realize just how often and how far people traveled then (contrary to what one might think). Some volumes of his original writings are lost, but for completness sake, have been replaced with poorly written and bowlderized translations that have survived - these stand out like a sore thumb and I could only rush through them, longing to get back to the Trask translation.

He wrote it over a number of years (based, I believe, on journals he had to have kept) and the series simply stop where he left off when he sickened and died.

If you are at all interested in history, this first-hand account of life in the 18th century is a must-read.

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.

There are so many reasons why you should read this book, that I hardly know where to begin in listing them.

Histoire de Ma Vie is the book that justly made Casanova famous, and it did so for far more than its prurient nature. Casanova is a marvellous writer. The quality of his memoirs shines through both the translation and the years since writing.

Volumes I & II give us the young Casanova growing up Venice. A child of the theater, he lives in the grey space between rich and poor. When he sets out to make his way in the world he is armed with his wit, his charm, and his flexible sense of ethics. His adventures and misadventures take him from Venice to Rome to Greece to Turkey. He starts a career within the church, makes money as an alchemist, and delights in the life of a gambler. There is probably a lot to criticise in the behaviour of Casanova, but his charm even wins over the reader. It is difficult to sit in judgement when he so cheerfully judges himself.

There is something for nearly everyone in these two volumes. History readers will get an intimate look at manners of the 18th century. Fans of autobiography and memoir will find this one of the most interesting and extensive examples that they have read. Teenagers will relate to some very familiar scenes of youthful rebellion (moments that have apparently changed very little in the past several hundred years). Even the novel reader who does not normally read memoir should find that there is enough adventure and derring-do to keep the pages turning.

The translation by Trask is clean and does not get in the way. This is worth reading in its entirety and I would personally skip the abridged version for the unabridged. My only complaint about the Johns Hopkins University Press Edition was that the notes for Volume I were in the middle of the book, and it would have been easier as the reader to have the notes for both volumes at the end.

I will be picking up Volumes III & IV as quickly as I can find them!

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.

The autobiography of Cassanova is a wonderful story, the Willard Trask translation brings the adventures of histories most famous ladies man to life in VERY explicit detail. Not for the faint of heart, but a great read



Be warned though: there are other translations that are just horrible, avoid the Penguin version at all costs. Also, it's worth knowing that the book is unbelievably long, the origional version had 10 volumes and the one for sale here only includes 1 and 2, the entire set put together is several thousand pages.

Still if you are going to read Cassanova, THIS is the version to get, if you want to finish the story you'll just have to buy 4 more books with the rest of his volumes.