The Story of My Life [Paperback]

Seducer, gambler, necromancer, swindler, swashbuckler, poet, self-made gentleman, bon vivant, Giacomo Casanova was not only the most notorious lover of the Western world, but a supreme story teller. He lived a life stranger than most fictions, and the tale of his own adventures is his most compelling story, and one that remained unfinished at the time of his death. This new selection contains all the highlights of Casanova's life: his youth in Venice as a precocious ecclesiastic; his dabbling in the occult; his imprisonment and thrilling escape; and his amorous conquests, ranging from noblewomen to nuns.Introduction by Gilberto Pizzamiglio
Note on the Text
Translators' Note

THE STORY OF MY LIFE

Family history. My first memory. Journey to Padua.

Preface

I

II
My grandmother boards me at the home of Doctor Gozzi. My first acquaintance with love.

III
Bettina believed to be mad. Father Mancia. The pox. I leave Padua.

IV
The patriarch of Venice confers the minor orders on me. Getting to know Senator Malipiero, Teresa Imer, Father Tosello's niece, Signora Orio, Nanetta, Marta, and La Cavamacchie. I become a preacher. My adventure at Pasiano with Lucia.

V
My brief but highly eventful visit to Ancona. Cecilia, Marina, Bellino. The Greek slave girl from the lazaretto. Bellino revealed.

VI
Bellino Unmasked. His Story

VII
Comic encounter at Orsara. Journey to Corfu. Sojourn in Constantinople. Bonneval. My return to Corfu.

VIII
I became a true good-for-nothing. A great stroke of luck raises me from destitution to the rank of wealthy gentleman.

IX
My apprenticeship in Paris. Portraits. Oddities. A thousand things.

X
My blunders in the French language, my successes, my many acquaintances. Louis XV. My brother arrives in Paris.

XI
My sojoulÓ*