I got through this by listening to Benedict Cumberbach read it to me and it was probably a lot better that way. ( )

Stark gekürzte, aber unterhaltsame Biographie des alten Schwerenöters Casanova. "Stellen"weise hat der geradezu lasziv entspannte Vortrag in mir solche Reaktionen provoziert:



Was soll ich sagen? Ich steh auf geschmeidige Stimmen... *rotanlauf* ( )

Ian Kelly managed to draw a portrait of a multifaceted man instead of a usual womanizing caricature. A foodie, businessman, theater connoisseur, writer, a great story teller and overall a charming man, Casanova managed to travel more in 18th century than most people do now. While he was a gambler, crook, womanizer, and immoral individual by today’s standard, his vices were normal for his turbulent times.
There are a few factual errors that I was able to catch. While the errors are inconsequential in the big canvas of Casanova’s life and character it throws a shadow of suspicion over the rigor of author’s research overall. The author mentions at least twice that Catherine II was Peter’s daughter-in-law while in fact she married his grandson. Also I am not sure whom to blame the author or Casanova about the fact that Catherine was interested in Venice because of the upcoming trip of her son on a Grand Tour, which is historically inaccurate since at that time her son was not even a teenager, and was not allowed out of the country until he produced an heir some 16 years after Casanova’s trip to Russia. Also Ian Kelly introduced Russian princess Dachova who did not exist, probably he meant princess Dashkova(In English edition “History of My Life” that is the name mentioned). Also there were minor typos throughout the book, “though” instead of “through”, “an” instead of “as” and countless others that made me stumble over otherwise smooth prose.
Overall, it seems that there is not a great deal of detailed historical knowledge on the part of the author, but his Casanova is a flesh and blood human, and his biography made for a great read. ( )

This is a very nicely written biography of Casanova, one of the few men whose names have become an adjective. The notes sometimes are difficult to refer to, but that will matter little to the casual reader for whom this book was written. After all, if one wants a scholarly text on the great lover, one should find a book written by a scholar rather than an actor. The author shows no especial erudition about the eighteenth century. The text seems very accurate, but it should be read for the joy of reading it.

“[. . .] Ma vie est ma matiere [et] ma matiere est ma vie,” reports Jacques Casanova de Seingalt (1725—1798) in his autobiographical memoir, Histoire de ma vie, comprising 6000 pages in a dozen volumes, and now considered one of the most detailed description of ‘life and times’ in Eighteenth-century Europe. Casanova deserves comparison with Montaigne and Plutarch in this regard. Ian Kelly’s Casanova: Actor, Lover, Priest, Spy is a close reading of the Histoire coupled with research into the archives of Venice, Paris, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rome, Prague, where Casanova traveled and lived, and in the Duchcov Castle in Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic), where Casanova spent his last years as librarian for Count Waldstein.

Known principally as a womanizer par excellence (Kelly estimates his ‘bedpost notches’ at between 122 and 136, mostly with women but including also a half dozen men), Casanova was not in the same league with his imaginary contemporary Don Giovanni (some 1800 conquests in the game of love and seduction). Born in Venice, the son of actors, Casanova grew up amidst the theater and at one time studied to become a priest. His travels took him to the capitals of Europe and to Constantinople. He met Benjamin Franklin in Paris, knew Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte (who may have considered Casanova as his inspiration for Don Giovanni), attacked in a pamphlet Voltaire just to be controversial. The Italian Commedia dell’Arte, Kelly surmises, may have been Casanova’s principel teacher in the art of seduction. Kelly reinforces this with his book’s organization into five ‘Acts’ with several ‘Scenes’ each and four ‘Intermezzi’ rather than sections with chapters.

This is a book rich in detail and anecdote, with supporting bibliography, notes on variant editions of Casanova’s Histoire, an index, and sixteen leaves of color plates. Ian Kelly’s other books include his Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef and Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style. ( )