Incredible, Insightful, Captivating...there is NO excuse for not giving this a try!!
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
his book can't be recommended too highly.


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.

here is hardly one page across the more than 3600 pages (excluding critical materials) that is not hair raising or jaw dropping for its picture of human depravity, duplicity, guile and gullibility. despite his protestations of honor and intelligence, casanova is candid about his own decadence and stupidity -- his autobiography is written, as he says, so that others may laugh with him at his life, even as he laughs at all the fools he has encountered. his honesty has led posterity to heap the sins of the century on his head, but the book makes clear that he was no more than a slippery and cheerful swimmer in a very polluted seaHistory of My Life, Vols 1-2

I have purchased Volumes III & IV already

DEEL 1&2