History of My Life by Giacomo Chevalier De Seingalt Casanova
In volumes 7 and 8, Casanova is now close to forty. His various manipulations of the credulous rich have made him rich in turn. His travels take him to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In Rome he charms the Pope; in Naples, he nearly marries a young woman as licentious as he is himself, but she turns out to be his daughter.
Trask has written a version in an English fully contemporary yet remarkably Italian in sensibilityWith 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's exemplary translation... makes the real Casanova accessible in English... as strange, as diverse, as compelling as fiction. -- John Simon Book Week 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 2007
Giacomo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725. His parents, both actors, wanted him to become a priest, but their hopes were dashed when, at sixteen, he was expelled from seminary for immoral misconduct. Probably best-known for his reputation as a womanizer, Casanova was in turn a secretary, a soldier in the Venetian army, a preacher, an alchemist, a gambler, a violinist, a lottery director, and a spy. He translated Homer's Iliad into Italian and collaborated with Da Ponte on the libretto for Mozart's Don Giovanni. He retired in 1785 to the castle of a friend-Count Waldstein of Bohemia-in order to write his memoirs.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780801856655 |
| ISBN 10 | 0801856655 |
| Title | History of My Life |
| Author | Giacomo Chevalier De Seingalt Casanova |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| Year published | 1997-07-17 |
| Number of pages | 704 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |