# Adventurer: The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova - Hardcover

by **Leo Damrosch** (Author)

**A fast-paced narrative about the world-famous libertine Giacomo Casanova, from celebrated biographer Leo Damrosch**

**"Fully succeeds in communicating that 'vivid presentness, ' that 'joyful eagerness' for life, which is what keeps us reading Casanova--and reading about him."--Gregory Dowling, _Wall Street Journal_**

**"A nuanced, deftly contextualized biography of an adventurer, an opportunist, and a man of voracious appetites. . . . Another top-notch work from Damrosch."--_Kirkus Reviews_ (starred review)**

The life of the iconic libertine Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) has never been told in the depth it deserves. An alluring representative of the Enlightenment's shadowy underside, Casanova was an aspiring priest, an army officer, a fortune teller, a con man, a magus, a violinist, a mathematician, a Masonic master, an entrepreneur, a diplomat, a gambler, a spy--and the first to tell his own story. In his vivid autobiography _Histoire de Ma Vie_, he recorded at least a hundred and twenty love affairs, as well as dramatic sagas of duels, swindles, arrests, and escapes. He knew kings and an empress, Catherine the Great, and most of the famous writers of the time, including Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.

Drawing on seldom used materials, including the original French and Italian primary sources, and probing deeply into the psychology, self-conceptions, and self-deceptions of one of the world's most famous con men and seducers, Leo Damrosch offers a gripping, mature, and devastating account of an Enlightenment man, freed from the bounds of moral convictions.

### Author Biography

**Leo Damrosch** is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature Emeritus at Harvard University. His many books include _The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age_ and _Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World_, winner of the National Book Critics Circle award and Pulitzer finalist for biography. He lives in Newton, MA.

**Number of Pages:** 432

**Dimensions:** 1.55 x 9.51 x 6.46 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** May 24, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 35.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 35.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Adventurer: The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova - Hardcover

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