My rating: 4 of 5 stars
With a reputation that precedes him, without fail, all readers comes to Casanova with a preconceived notion of him either as the suave seducer with little regard for his partners – a description more accurate of Byron – or that of a philandering fraud who lucked his way through the beds and courts of 18th century Europe. Ian Kelly, however, does not cast Giacomo Casanova as either, nor as swashbuckling, depraved, or the loveable rogue. The key lies in Kelly’s observation of Casanova’s sex life, for which the Venetian is famed. For a supposedly ceaseless appetite for everything carnal, Casanova’s sex life was no more or less active than any of the Grand Tourists* at the time. The only difference being that Casanova took the time to write it all down… and perhaps trailed into somewhat less ‘vanilla’ scenarios.
Without glorifying libertine escapades or sugar-coating reprehensible details – such as Casanova’s admission of incest and, by modern standards, paedophilia – a story already lucidly told by its author, Kelly has written a well-rounded and candid biographers account of Casanova’s life. Using Casanova’s own memoirs as the primary source Kelly ensures that the same charm filters down to biographer’s page, then using surviving contemporary sources Kelly corrects Casanova’s intended or innocent mistakes, verifies passages that seem fictional, and where possible unveils the characters in Casanova’s life previous hidden under pseudonyms. It could be argued that singled the memoirs down to a single volume cuts too much out but I believe Kelly’s intentions were to give us an insight of the ‘real man’ behind the Chevalier de Seingalt, the context of which such events occur and the subsequent effect, if you want the whole explicit detail perhaps it would be best to start with the memoirs, The Story of My Life.
That being said, having not read that memoirs (though, yes, I have seen the 2005 BBC3 miniseries and listened to an abridged audiobook of Casanova’s Venetian years) I still found this book highly accessible. Written in standard third person non-fictional prose Kelly provides a clear context to Casanova’s life, breaking it down to periods or eras to examine as a whole whereas chronologically some things overlap, such as Casanova’s workings with the French government and his involvement in the cabala. Yet it’s not disjointed, and could easily be read alongside the memoirs in the same way you might read a SparkNotes guide to accompany a book report. As others have pointed out the book does wane a little towards the end, yet this appropriately reflects Casanova as by this period. Casanova did not write in detail about his life as the librarian at Dux, whether he intended to and was interrupted by death we’ll never know, leaving Kelly to piece together the last years from note and letters, no longer having the vibrant memoirs to steer the book forwards. That being said, with the socio-historic context offered I would recommend this biography both to newcomers and well versed fans of Casanova.
It was an enjoyable read even if my sympathies for Casanova was lost by the time he reaches his forties, a point when his life turns from florid to sordid thanks to apparently a midlife crisis, with the self-propaganda stripped from his memoirs, the Casanova Kelly leaves us with is one you cannot help but pity a little. For all the less admirable instances in Casanova’s life it is a shame he faded out, reduced to a side note in Dux, after having lived so much, a surprise considering there must have been more than one jealous husband willing to kill him. Of course Casanova is both and neither seducer or fraud, but rather and above all a confident actor playing at being nobility or being love; ever the Venetian laughing at the approaching tide.
*Men, often of aristocratic families, travelling Europe with no fixed address and more money than they have sense.
Content warnings:
Major warning for sexual content.
Minor warning for language, gambling, references to the occult.
Casanova is his own warning…
Casanova by Ian Kelly, Paperback £9.99 , also available in ebook formats and as an abridged audiobook.
The Curvy Bookcase 