Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Poetic but not Compelling
Review: In light of today's widespread sexual promiscuity, Giacomo Casanova's 132 reported seductions are less than shocking. The legend of this infamous Italian lover, however, rages on, fueled by the replication of his 12-volume memoir which runs more than 4000 pages in length.

Giacomo Casanova was more than a lover; he was an author, an actor, a priest, a translator. In her book, Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women, Lydia Flem, a Belgian psychoanalyst and critic, outlines Casanova's life in eighteenth-century Venice, not to paint yet another lurid portrait of one of the world's most famous lovers, but to prove that he was also one of the world's most misunderstood.

When Casanova was only a year old, his actress mother left him in the care of his grandmother while she performed on the London stage. When he was eight, his father died. Alone and abandoned, Flem sees Casanova's nomadic, pleasure-seeking life as a search for the parental comfort he was denied. She further characterizes him as a man in search of an identity. Admitting he was the son of actors never really furthered Casanova's desires; he invented a noble lineage for himself and christened himself the Chevalier de Seingalt.

True to our expectations, Casanova learned the art of seduction at a very early age. He was eleven and training for the priesthood in a seminary when Bettina, the sister of a priest, seduced her obliging victim. Deciding the priesthood was not his true vocation, Casanova returned to his native Venice and fell into bed with two sisters at the same time, an act that was to set the stage for his later bizarre-but-comical affairs. The love of his life, we learn, was a woman named Henriette, a cross-dresser who enjoyed passing herself off as a castrato. And, there was the charming girl Casanova made love to and nearly married, the daughter of one of his girlfriends, who just happened to be Casanova's own daughter as well. But, Flem tells us, despite his steamy adventurousness, Casanova retained an air of modesty. His own memoirs are draped in staid and proper eighteenth-century euphemisms, tinged with an ecclesiastical touch: he tells us how he "conquered the ebony fleece," "got close to the altar frieze," and "performed the gentle sacrifice."

Flem does not view Casanova as a traditional womanizer par excellence; she sees him, instead as a sentimental, the epitome of gentlemanliness, a lover of life whose greatest desire was to share his happiness (as well as his intellectual pursuits) with women. That's believable enough, but Flem, however, seems to take her analysis a bit too far. "There is not a trace of misogyny in Casanova," she writes. "Women are his masters. The feminine so fascinates him that he would like to merge with it." This is a little difficult to swallow since Casanova, himself, called the independence of women a "source of great evil," and said he'd rather die than give up his manhood.

Casanova lived a long life and eventually even this master seducer had to deal with the specter of old age. He did so most admirably, spending the final years of his life as a librarian in a Bohemian castle and devoting thirteen hours per day to the creation of his memoirs. Surprisingly, it is through his writing, along with his thinking, reflecting and remembering, that brought Casanova his greatest joy. Although his contemporaries urged him to publish his memoirs before his death, Casanova steadfastly refused to do so. He did, though, believe that it would be through his words that he would secure lasting happiness as well as his own place in history.

Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women is an interesting and poetic, if not completely compelling look at one of history's more flamboyant and lovable figures. Flem, though, seems to have fallen into the trap of over-analysis; she seems to be reaching for meanings that just weren't there. Casanova's words regarding women apeak for themselves: "One-third...," he writes, "made me laugh, one-third gave me an erection, one-third gave me food for thought." It is too bad this extraordinary man never found the one woman who could give him all three.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Primer on Giacomo Casanova.
Review: It took me two weeks to finish the whole book, and I must say it was a fascinating read. I've always wondered who Casanova was and what he did with his life. This book answered my questions and more.

Giacomo Casanova was a lover, philosopher, scientist, spy, and finally, a librarian for the King of Dux in Bohemia. He had lived an interesting life. A life some of us could only dream of living.

This book is by no means the most exhaustive work on Casanova (it wasn't meant to be), but is an analysis of one who saught approval of women because of his mother (she hadn't paid much attention to him).

I recommend this book. It's a good introduction on Giacomo Casanova.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful Analysis of a Misunderstood Man
Review: Lydia flem provides a refreshing account of the, often misunderstood in North America, Giacomo Casanova. She bases her study on Casanova's autobographical History of My Life which he wrote while exiled from Venice in a Bohemian castle. In many ways casanova was a romantic and an intellectual. he loved the good life, enjoyed aesthetic pursuits, was a violinist, writer, poet and even dabbled in medicine. he was also the contemporary of Mozart and was born in the city of Vivaldi (another misunderstood venetian who was exiled from his native city). Most significantly, Flem stresses the fact that casanova was more of a feminist than a womanizer. He did have affairs with plenty of women, surely (and why anyone should object to that is a mistery). However, he appreciated women, treated them as equals and only sought mutual pleasure. The misunderstanding comes from the notion that he only sought sexual pleasure. No, he was witty, spoke several langauges and his comapny was welcomed throughgout the courts of Europe. he was also a bit of a Robin-Hood and, like most fun-loving and charming people, spendthrift and unconcerned with financial matters.
This is the account of a charming personality. There is much to learn form Casanova, and I admit I purchased the book with thge original intent of sharpening my own seductive techniques. I found them, in fact, extremely effective - especially with intelligent ones (mostly from eastern europe) just as Casanova did.