Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725–1798)

I picked this audiobook up because it's read by Benedict Cumberbatch, and honestly I thought I could listen to him read *anything* to me. I've been proven so, so very wrong. In fact, the bit that is essentially detailing a gang rape, but couched in words that reassure the reader/listener that Casanova and his buddies meant no harm and in fact after the first go-round the girl was pretty okay with it and actually liked what was being done to her was so much worse than its already horrendous show more nature would suggest because of the incongruity of it being delivered via the dulcet timber of Cumberbatch's voice. Even worse is reading/listening to this in the days of Kavanaugh et al. and letting it sink in in an even more absorbing way that this is all the Same Shit, Different Century. Cripes. show less

While his name is now synonymous with a serial romantic, I don’t actually care much for his romantic trysts. He traveled a lot and describes vivid details of 18th century life.
His reflections on his hedonism in the first chapter were some of my favourite parts.
I took pleasure in straying, and I lived perpetually in error, with no other consolation than an awareness of doing so.(3)
I have always known myself to be the principal cause of all of the misfortunes that have befallen me. Thus I show more took pleasure in finding myself able to be my own pupil and compelled to love my teacher. (16)

I also found it funny how besotted he was. He’s not seducing M.M. for the fun of it, he truly thinks he loves her. Did he think that about all his ladies? Keep on dreaming my guy, you’re only fooling yourself.

This is just an excerpt and I am tempted to read the big work, or more excerpts. However, I would want to read about him enjoying swindling fools and making questionable life decisions.
Notes in this book mention masks, disguises and balls, as well as philosophical conversations, and I would be interested in those. show less

This huge memoir is as entertaining as any novel, and certainly a whole lot longer! Each volume in the eminently readable Willard Trask translation is 300 to 350 pages long, plus copious endnotes with literary, historical, geographical, and biographical explications.

Casanova's exploits as a Freemason, faux-Rosicrucian, alchemist and magical confidence-man all rest within a larger context, where the freethinker and libertine seems to have enjoyed a genuine conviction of the reality of his show more personal daimonic genius. Writing of his first hardships as a prisoner, Casanova reflects, "My Genius diverted himself in this fashion in order to give me the pleasure of making comparisons." The name of this Guardian Angel was
P A R A L I S. show less

Two, two, two books in one! Casanova wrote two accounts of his duel with the Polish Count Branicki. One was a thinly-disguised autobiographical novella, written in Italian, the other was included in his Memoirs and written in French. The first is more fleshed out, with whole sections of dialogue and much greater description and ruminations. It's interesting to compare the two. All the formality and etiquette of honor and duelling is strange to us, but was quite acceptable in Casanova's time. show more It is quite curious how Branicki and Casanova duel, while at the same time they deny that their fight is a duel since certain technical requirements are not complied with (no seconds, for instance). Yet they still engage in ritual compliments and deferrals to one another, though there's a bit of treachery on Branicki's part. Casanova was a fascinating character, with much more to him that the Don Juan/Don Giovanni part that he's famous for. show less