Casanova: Actor Lover Priest Spy, by Ian Kelly

If the author tries a bit too hard to make Casanova especially relevant to our times, I found myself considerably surprised by how much sympathy I felt for Casanova as a person, even if he would be a rather like Audrey “Drake” Graham if he existed in our own times, for the good and bad that this involves. Perhaps the biggest flaw of this book is a tendency to view Casanova through the prism of psychology, and to attempt an armchair psychoanalysis of Casanova as someone whose hopeless longing for intimacy with others (mostly, though not exclusively, much younger women) was born out of a stunted emotional development that involved the absence of a father and a remote mother who was seldom around and certainly not very maternal and loving. If that is the book’s biggest weakness, alongside a total lack of seriousness about religious matters (which was probably shared by the book’s subject, it must be admitted, even if he did graduate with a doctorate in law at the tender age of 16 and serve as a minor cleric during his late teen years), the biggest strength about the book is the author’s willingness to take what Casanova said about himself seriously. This appears to be unusual, given the very striking aspects of Casanova’s writing that shows him to be somewhat careless about financial matters, aside from being rather addicted to gambling, an enjoyment of fine food, and seduction.

This book offers a generally chronological view of Casanova’s life, looking at it mainly in the point of view of examining Casanova’s life through his wide-ranging travels. Though he was from Venice, Casanova’s career was considerably wide-ranging, extending from Constantinople, where he partook of various discreetly discussed bisexual amours, to his tragicomical experience in Spain of finding himself accused of murder after defending himself from what appear to have been government hit-men (!), to a lengthy sojourn in London where his declining sexual prowess and financial troubles led him to the brink of suicide, as well as brief times in Berlin and St. Petersburg, although enough to interview the famous enlightened despots of his day and record his thoughts about them for the sake of posterity. In writing this book, the author seeks the difficult task of trying to untangle Casanova’s chronology, the roster of his body count in the low hundreds or so (which the author appears to believe is typical of his own time and ours among seasoned and experienced world travelers (!!!!)), how Casanova financed his life of pretending to be an aristocrat and associating with that set (often through espionage and sponging off of genuine aristocrats, apparently), Casanova’s importance to the culinary history of his age, as well as the political/religious problems of Casanova’s life because of his social climbing that led him to occasional stints in jail as well as a lengthy period of an outlaw from the Venetian Inquisition.

In terms of its contents, this book is structured like a five-act play (fitting for someone whose life was so cinematic and who was himself the author and co-author of a number of plays, including the libretto for Mozart’s Don Giovanni). The book begins with a prelude about the Theater of the World where Casanova saw himself as an actor, as well as an introduction about the Opera Buffa called Venice in the 18th century, when Casanova lived. The first act of the book explores the author’s life from his birth through his schooling, his very brief career as a preacher, his early romantic life, and the end of his time as a seminarian, apparently for some forbidden sexual escapades with a fellow seminarian. The second act of the book then finds Casanova traveling to Rome and Naples, returning to his hometown, visiting the Seraglio of Constantinople, and entering into society and falling in love with Henriette. The third act of the book finds Casanova on the way to France, finding his way in French society, engaging in lovemaking with nuns (and novices), imprisoned and escaping from prison in Venice, returning to Paris, and scamming an old woman out of her wealth in a vain attempt to make her immortal. The fourth act of the book finds Casanova talking with Voltaire in Switzerland, pretending to be the Chevalier de Seingalt, traveling to London and living beyond his means in England (and failing to learn the English language), visiting Frederick the Great in Prussia and Catharine the Great in St. Petersburg, and then dueling a nobleman in Poland. The fifth and last act finds Casanova wandering around Europe, spending some time in Spain that went poorly, spending some years as a papal knight in Rome, revisiting Venice before getting himself kicked out again, helping Mozart with Don Giovanni, and then spending his last years as a librarian at a lonely castle at Dux. In between the acts are essays, labeled as intermezzi, on travel in the 18th century, sex in the 18th century, the Kabbala, Casanova as a food writer, and a discussion of the history of Casanova’s life, his sprawling memoir. The book ends with acknowledgements, a bibliography, notes on sources, and an index.