Casanova

August 15, 2016
In this overstuffed, occasionally compelling, but ultimately lackluster recounting of the famed libertine’s life, Bergreen (Columbus: The Four Voyages) gives much detail but little insight into the experiences of the man whose name became shorthand for seduction. Born in Venice in 1725 to two actors, Giacomo Casanova was a sickly child neglected by his parents. He did have brains, however, eventually studying for the priesthood in his teens, even as he discovered the pleasures of sex. Bergreen follows his protagonist across Europe, to Paris, St. Petersburg, and Prague, encountering figures high and low, including Voltaire and Don Giovanni librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. There is little assessment, however, just a retelling in intimate, and often laborious, detail of the events of Casanova’s life—especially his famous love life. One notable exception to the otherwise monotonous focus on Casanova’s seductions comes in the chapter devoted to his incarceration and daring escape from the notorious prison I Piombi, after his arrest and conviction by the Inquisition. The episode reads like a brilliant spy novel. There is no end of fascinating, rich material here—but Bergreen unfortunately does not make the most of it. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME.

Bergreen (Columbus: The Four Voyages, 2011, etc.) applies his historical storytelling skills to the famous Venetian lover, introducing his intellectual side.Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was the child of two actors from whom he inherited and perfected his playacting abilities, which he used to his advantage as a social climber. He trained for the church and received a doctorate in civil and canon law at age 16, giving him the basis for his exceptional writings. His mother deserted him and set the pattern for the Casanova Syndrome of seduction and abandonment. He was a libertine and proud of it; he felt it better to be notorious than obscure. He was an adventurer, mathematician, musician, and literary genius, but he was also an obsessive gambler, losing and gaining fortune after fortune. One of his most successful gambles was instituting the French lottery for the state in 1758. It continued to be successful even through the French Revolution, paying for the Ecole Militaire where Napoleon trained. (It was Napoleon who eventually caused the collapse of Casanova's beloved Venice.) Casanova usually fell in love with his conquests, and sometimes he actually failed to convince his lover to submit to him. Condemned as an atheist by the Inquisition, he was locked up in a miserable prison on the top floor of the Doge's Palace. It would be nearly two decades before he was pardoned and allowed to return to Venice. Throughout, Bergreen makes good use of an excellent translation of his subject's 12-volume memoir. While it was published shortly after his death, it was censored and edited, and the first unexpurgated version didn't appear until 1960. The author neatly captures Casanova's voice, "often amused, but rarely mocking, conversational yet highly literary, and simultaneously vulgar and brilliant." Casanova's adventures include plenty of juicy details, and Bergreen weaves in just enough to prove his reputation. His travels during one of history's most exciting periods will be great fun for any history lover. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 15, 2016

Few know much more about Bergreen's (Columbus: The Four Voyages) subject Giacomo Casanova (1725-98) than that he was the archetype of the libertine, the real Don Juan. His sexual initiation was at age 11. From there ensued a 50-year string of seductions, debaucheries, arrests, near arrests, and escapes (most famous, from the dungeons of the Venetian Inquisition), all described in excruciating detail in the 12 volumes of his memoirs. Casanova warred with Voltaire, walked and talked with Catherine the Great in her St. Petersburg palace. His most bizarre encounter was with the Marquise d'Urfe, who wanted him to impregnate her so she could give birth to herself and be reincarnated as a man. Each experience is titillating when read alone, but they pall en masse: he largely recycled the same set of adventures but with different partners. The result is a biography that's compelling in part, but less so when read from start to close. VERDICT Bergreen does a respectable job, but the life he studies quickly becomes boring.--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

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