Adventurer

This book aims to tell the quite sensational story of Casanova's life in greater depth, and with fuller use of his writings and modern commentaries, than has previously been done. It's not new" in the sense of locating hitherto unknown material, and itdoesn't advance any theoretical agenda. Instead it is a comprehensive reconsideration of the issues involved in the story of someone who was not only a serial seducer--with disturbing implications at the present time that previous biographers have largely ignored--but also a gambler, con man, and practitioner of magic. Casanova's brilliant memoir, entitled The Story of My Life, needs to be carefully questioned at many points where he can be suspected of exaggeration or outright invention. Damrosch also places him fully in the multiple subcultures he inhabited, including libertinism in thought as well as action, and also his experience as an "adventurer," that need to be clarified for modern readers. The author has drawn much more extensively on Casanova's non-autobiographical writings than previous biographers have done"--