Giacomo Casanova

Coming to the big screen this January—Buena Vista's Casanova, starring Heath Ledger and Sienna Miller Seducer, gambler, necromancer, swindler, Good Samaritan, spy, swashbuckler, self-made gentleman, entrepreneur, poet, translator, philosopher, and general bon vivant, Giacomo Casanova was not only the most notorious lover the Western world has known but also astoryteller of the first order. The Penguin Classics edition of Casanova's The Story of My Life features a brilliant translation by Stephen Sartarelli and Sophie Hawkes and provides readers with the most famous episodes as well as the overall shape of Casanova's monumental memoir in one beguiling, unique volume.

The Story of My Life

One of the few works written in Casanova’s native Italian, The Duel is an important example of the infamous Lothario’s vivid prose style. Translated for the first time into English, this autobiographical novel describes Casanova’s extraordinary battle with a Polish count, while on the run from the Venetian authorities. Foreword by Tim Parks. Having escaped from Venice’s infamous Piombi Prison, Casanova was forced into exile. Far from destitute, however, his reputation gained him entry into European society’s highest echelons. Yet there, he soon found himself obliged to engage in a duel over a ballerina—a lady in whom neither he nor his Polish rival had the slightest interest. Recounting the deadly encounter and the surprising events it precipitated with sardonic, even blas&#eacute; wit, Casanova creates a work of thrilling adventure and inimitable literary style. Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) was an adventurer, a spy, a poet, and a novelist. His literary reputation rests on his remarkable History of My Life, which vividly records not only his exploits and adventures but the manners and morals of the day.

The Duel

The Venetian Years

Europe's greatest adventurer. Thrown into an escape-proof prison for a crime he probably committed. The question is, which crime? In 1755, the infamous Giacomo Casanova was locked up without trial in Venice's notorious Leads prison. Over 15 months he battled disease, madness, boredom, grotesque gaolers, bad books and fellow prisoners, before attempting the most audacious and typically flamboyant escape in history. This is Casanova's own account of the escape bid that made him a celebrity across Europe.
Translated by Arthur Machen

My Escape from Venice Prison

Casanova was the most notorious lover in history. From seducing a nun in an elaborate boudoir, watched by her lover, to frolicking in a bath with a beautiful girl and an eccentric old lady to trick her of her jewels, his memoir describes his amorous encounters in intimate detail. United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love . . . .

Of Mistresses, Tigresses and Other Conquests

Casanova – Geschichte meines Lebens – Komplettausgabe aller 6 Bände

Nuno Castro

Paulo Azeredo

História da minha vida

The name of Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt (1725-98), is now synonymous with amorous exploits, and there are plenty of these, vividly narrated, in his memoirs. But Casanova was not just an energetic lover. In his time he was a diplomat, businessman, trainee priest, traveler, prisoner, magician, confidence man, gambler, professional entertainer, and charlatan. He financed business projects, organized lotteries, wrote opera libretti, and dabbled in high politics. Above all he was an autobiographer of enduring brilliance and subtlety who left behind him what is probably the most remarkable confession ever written. Casanova explored to the full all the possibilities eighteenth-century Venice offered by way of love and profit before being imprisoned, escaping from jail, and fleeing from the city to begin travels that took him across Europe. In Moscow and London, Berlin and Constantinople, he met the famous men and women of his time—Catherine the Great, Voltaire, Louis XV, Rousseau—and recorded his encounters for the memoirs he wrote in retirement at the end of his life.

The Memoirs of Casanova

História da Minha Fuga das Prisões de Veneza

Adam Whiteley

Europe's greatest adventurer. Thrown into an escape-proof prison for a crime he probably committed. The question is, which crime? In 1755, the infamous Giacomo Casanova was locked up without trial in Venice's notorious Leads prison. Over 15 months he battled disease, madness, boredom, grotesque gaolers, bad books and fellow prisoners, before attempting the most audacious and typically flamboyant escape in history. This is Casanova's own account of the escape bid that made him a celebrity across Europe, full of his unique wit and philosophy, translated into English in full for the first time.

The Story of My Escape from the Prisons of the Republic of Venice Otherwise Known As the Leads

The Story of My Escape

The colorful memoirs of the legendary eighteenth-century lover recall not only his amorous exploits, but also his diverse careers as a gambler, businessman, diplomat, entertainer, politician, con artist, and world traveler.

History of My Life

Volume 1b - A Cleric in Naples - in large print

The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798

This is a biographical book. I had been careful, on my arrival in Bologna, to take up my quarters at a small inn, so as not to attract any notice, and as soon as I had dispatched my letters to Therese and the French officer, I thought of purchasing some linen, as it was at least doubtful whether I should ever get my trunk. I deemed it expedient to order some clothes likewise. I was thus ruminating, when it suddenly struck me that I was not likely now to succeed in the Church, but feeling great uncertainty as to the profession I ought to adopt, I took a fancy to transform myself into an officer, as it was evident that I had not to account to anyone for my actions.

Part 3 - Military Career

Casanova

Casanova lui-même nous fait le récit de sa vie riche et dense, dans laquelle séductions et aventures sont intimement liées... POUR UN PUBLIC AVERTI. Les Mémoires de Casanova sont écrits entre 1789 et 1798. Publiés à titre posthume en 1825 dans une version censurée, ils sont mis à l'index en 1834, avec les autres œuvres de l’auteur. Cette autobiographie, qui se lit comme un roman, retrace non seulement les amours passagères et libertines du célèbre auteur, mais également sa vie d’aventurier vénitien, parcourant les capitales de l’Europe et embrassant tour à tour les carrières d’abbé, de militaire, de poète, de magicien, d'espion, etc. Casanova a vécu en homme libre de pensée et d’action dans un siècle des Lumières dont il est un des représentants. Découvrez en détail le destin d'un auteur incontournable de la littérature libertine et européenne ! EXTRAIT Je commence par déclarer à mon lecteur que, dans tout ce que j’ai fait de bon ou de mauvais durant tout le cours de ma vie, je suis sûr d’avoir mérité ou démérité, et que par conséquent je dois me croire libre. La doctrine des stoïciens et de toute autre secte sur la force du destin est une chimère de l’imagination qui tient à l’athéisme. Je suis non seulement monothéiste, mais chrétien fortifié par la philosophie, qui n’a jamais rien gâté. Je crois à l’existence d’un Dieu immatériel, auteur et maître de toutes les formes ; et ce qui me prouve que je n’en ai jamais douté, c’est que j’ai toujours compté sur sa providence, recourant à lui par la prière dans mes détresses, et m’étant toujours trouvé exaucé. Le désespoir tue ; la prière le fait disparaître, et, quand l’homme a prié, il éprouve de la confiance et il agit. Quant aux moyens dont le souverain des êtres se sert pour détourner les malheurs imminents de ceux qui implorent son secours, cette connaissance est au-dessus du pouvoir de l’entendement de l’homme qui, dans le même instant où il contemple l’incompréhensibilité de la providence divine, se voit réduit à l’adorer. Notre ignorance devient notre seule ressource, et les vrais heureux sont ceux qui la chérissent. Il faut donc prier Dieu et croire avoir obtenu la grâce que nous lui avons demandée, même quand l’apparence nous montre le contraire. Pour ce qui est de la posture du corps dans laquelle il faut être quand on s’adresse au Créateur, un vers de Pétrarque nous l’indique : « Con le ginocchia della mente inchine. » (« De l’âme et de l’esprit fléchissant les genoux. ») À PROPOS DE L'AUTEUR Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725-1798) est un aventurier et auteur de la République de Venise. Il est connu comme celui dont le nom est entré dans le vocabulaire de la séduction. À la fin de sa vie, il s’établit à Dux en Bohème, pour se consacrer pleinement à l’écriture, et rédige pendant près de dix ans ses mémoires, en français. Son autobiographie est une des sources les plus denses et authentiques des us et coutumes de la société européenne du XVIIIe siècle. À PROPOS DE LA COLLECTION Retrouvez les plus grands noms de la littérature érotique dans notre collection Grands classiques érotiques. Autrefois poussés à la clandestinité et relégués dans « l'Enfer des bibliothèques », les auteurs de ces œuvres incontournables du genre sont aujourd'hui reconnus mondialement. Du Marquis de Sade à Alphonse Momas et ses multiples pseudonymes, en passant par le lyrique Alfred de Musset ou la féministe Renée Dunan, les Grands classiques érotiques proposent un catalogue complet et varié qui contentera tant les novices que les connaisseurs.

Tome troisième - première partie

Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt, écrits par lui-même

Volume 1d - Return to Venice - in large print

In London and Moscow

The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

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.

Giacomo Casanova

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