x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
Novelist Guy Endore dissects facts and stories in Casanova's autobiography, displaying highlights, embellishments, flat out lies and details Casanova didn't reveal but are now known after being discovered by scholars years later.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Here is the first biography of Casanova, "the king of all adventurers," the great gallant of the Eighteenth Century. Liar, forger, cardsharp, adulterer, seducer, he had only his wits to protect him from unmasking - and the resultant imprisonment and poverty. Yet in the midst of his ruthless... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Giacomo Girolamo Casanova: 18th century lothario, mathematician, philosopher, writer, intellectual, government spy, Freemason, gambler, traveler, scholar, magician, imposter, aristocrat (later in life)
- La Denis: first major love interest of Casanova
- Josuff Ali: wealthy Turkish philosopher and friend of Casanova's
- Frederick, King of Prussia: Add a description of this character.
- Czarina Catherine The Great
- Count d'Aranda
- Ben Franklin: Casanova met him at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences at the Louvre
- Francois Casanova: Casanova's brother; painter in residence at the Louvre. Francois had reputation as best painter of battle scenes in Europe
- Joseph Charles Emmanuel Waldenstein-Wartemberg: Lord of Dux
- Prince Adam Bathyani
- Prince Kaunitz
- Prince de Ligne
- Count Waldenstein: nephew of Prince de Ligne; gave job to Casanova as palace librarian
- Princess Clary: daughter of Prince de Ligne; wrote POLEMOSCOPE (novel)
- Hugh Eliot: minister from England
- Canoness of Eltz
- Count Camillo Marcolini: Director of Beaux Arts in Dresden
- Countess Cecile Roggendorff: Canoness of Hale; took up friendship with Casanova through letters, Casanova was an old friend of her father's. Cecile and Casanova never met in person
- Carlo Angiolini: choreographer in Dresden; married Casanova's niece, Marianna August; Carlo and Casanova's dog Finette were the only ones present at the time of Casanova's death.
- Princess Elisa von der Recke
- Count Ernest: older brother of Countess Cecile; friend to Waldenstein family
- Countess Salm: Countess Cecile's aunt
- Montgolfier Brothers: Joseph-Michele & Jacques-Etienne -- inventors of the hot air balloon
- Maria Leczinka: Queen of France
- Duchess of Villadorias: rumored to be a nymphomaniac
- Emperor Joseph II
Quotes edit
-
“what causes the delights of my life has nothing to do with the place where I dwell. When I am not sleeping, I dream, and when I am tired of dreaming, I grind out black on paper, then I read and more often than not I reject all that my pen has vomited.”
Giacomo Casanova
Setting & Locations edit
- Italy: Naples, Rome, Genoa, Florence, Parma, Turin, Modena, Padua, Calabria
- Switzerland: Geneva
- Croatia: Dalmatia
- Germany: Dresden, Cologne, Berlin
- Austria: Vienna, Brussels
- Portugal: Lisbon
- Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Catalonia
- Russia: St. Petersburg
- Poland: Warsaw
- Holland: The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam
- France: Paris, Marseilles, Vaucluse (Fountain of Vaucluse), Avignon, Nice, Strasbourg, Savoy,
- Czech Republic: Prague
- Greece: Corfu
- Turkey: Constantinople
- Belgium: Antwerp / Flanders
- Prussia
Glossary edit
- Aix: (French) mineral water
- Subluxation: A subluxation may have different meanings, depending on the medical specialty involved. It implies the presence of an incomplete or partial dislocation (Latin: luxatio) of a joint or organ
- Sequin: a denomination of money in Casanova's time
- Apostasy: Apostasy ( /əˈpɒstəsi/; Greek: ἀποστασία (apostasia), 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person.
- Seraglio: A seraglio ( /səˈræljoʊ/ sə-ral-yoh or /səˈrɑːljoʊ/ sə-rahl-yoh) or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian varianta of Turkish saray, from Persian saraʾi (سرای),<1> meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace.<2><3> The term harem is also used to refer to these sequestered living quarters, but has additionally come to refer to the women themselves.
- Exculpates: To clear of guilt or blame.
- Bastinado: 1. A beating with a stick or cudgel, especially on the soles of the feet.2. A stick or cudgel.tr.v. bas·ti·na·doed also bas·ti·nad·ed, bas·ti·na·do·ing also bas·ti·nad·ing, bas·ti·na·does also bas·ti·nadesTo subject to a beating; thrash.
- Imbroglio or Embroglio: 1.a. A difficult or intricate situation; an entanglement.b. A confused or complicated disagreement.2. A confused heap; a tangle.
- Collation: A light meal permitted on fast days
- Erubescence: the process of growing red or a condition of redness
- Inanition: 1. Exhaustion, as from lack of nourishment or vitality.2. The condition or quality of being empty.
- Inguinal: Of, relating to, or located in the groin.
- Gallicism: 1. A French phrase or idiom appearing in another language.2. A characteristic French trait.
- Callipygous: Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.
- Sudorific: Causing or increasing sweat
- Fakir: 1. A Muslim religious mendicant.2. A Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance
- Acephalous: lacking a head or having the head reduced2: lacking a governing head or chief
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 920
Subjects edit
We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
