Casanova: Actor, Lover, Priest, Spy - Softcover

Kelly, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585428442 ISBN 13: 9781585428441

Publisher: Tarcherperigee, 2011

Synopsis

"A sheer testament to the power of the written word." (The New York Times)

Giacomo Casanova's energy was dazzling. He made and lost fortunes, founded state lotteries, and wrote forty-two books and 3,600 pages of memoirs recording the tastes and smells of the years before the French Revolution-as well as his affairs and sexual encounters with dozens of women and a handful of men.

Historian Ian Kelly draws on previously unpublished documents from the Venetian Inquisition, and documents by Casanova and his friends and lovers, which give new insights into his life and world. Kelly's research spans eighteenth-century Venice, Paris, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rome, Prague, and the Czech castle where Casanova lived, wrote, and died.

From his devotion to kabbalah to his collaboration with Mozart and librettist Da Ponte on the opera Don Giovanni, from his vast appetite for food and sex to his training for the priesthood, Casanova reveled in the commedia dell'arte. And, as Kelly posits, it is from Casanova's careful study of its artifice and illusion that his success as both a libertine and a libertarian was founded.

About this title

Review:

'enthralling new biography. . .

It is hard to conceive of a juicier, more informative account of social and sexual mores of 18th century Europe.' (Daily Mail 2008-06-13)

'In Kelly's hands, the story makes for a thrilling read' (The Sunday Times 2008-06-13)

'Ian Kelly has produced a great blast of a book, packed with energy and information, marinated in sympathy and understanding, and rippling with enthusiasm right down to the final footnote.' (Sunday Telegraph 2008-06-13)

'sober, thoughtful and affectionate new biography' (Financial Times 2008-06-13)

'sparkling. . . . Kelly has a fine way with libertines and dandies.' (Independent 2008-06-13)

''The thing is to dazzle,' wrote Casanova. In this enthralling book he dazzles once again, and so, too, does his biographer.' (Mail on Sunday 2008-06-13)

'Marvellous' (Books Quarterly 2008-06-23)

Book Description:

Ian Kelly's revelatory history of the world's greatest lover was chosen as the Sunday Times Biography of the Year.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tarcherperigee
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1585428442
• ISBN 13: 9781585428441
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416