Audiobook · read by volunteers
Memoirs of Jacques Casanova Vol. 1
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798)
Read by icyjumbo (1964-2010), Melody Martinez, Ashwin Jain, Lizzie Driver, Luigina, Jc Guan, Anna Simon, MichelleHarris, Stephanie Dupal-Demartin, Reynard T. Fox · 43 chapters · 24 h 55
About the book
Giacomo Casanova's name has become shorthand for a certain kind of adventurer, but the man who wrote his memoirs in old age was a good deal more than that. He was born in Venice, trained in several professions, travelled across Europe and met writers, rulers and rogues. This first volume covers his early life and brings the energy of a natural storyteller to scenes of travel, intrigue, love affairs and narrow escapes. The memoirs are candid, witty and sometimes vain, and they give a vivid picture of European society in the eighteenth century. The version heard here is the English translation by Arthur Machen. Forty-three sections, including prefaces, are read by a team of volunteers and last nearly twenty-five hours. Please note that the work contains frank episodes of an adult nature, so it is best suited to mature listeners.
Introduction
Giacomo Casanova, who lived from 1725 to 1798, was born in Venice and died at Dux in Bohemia, now Duchcov in the Czech Republic. He was a writer, adventurer and charmer who used his wits to make his way through the courts and cities of Europe. In his last years he worked as a librarian and wrote the long account of his life by which he is remembered.
The memoirs were first published in a heavily edited form after his death. The English translation by Arthur Machen appeared in 1894, and it is the version recorded here. The book is valued not only for its stories of seduction but also as a lively source of information about travel, gambling, the theatre, religion and politics in eighteenth-century Europe.
This is the first of five volumes. The recording opens with Casanova at Dux, the translator's preface and the author's preface, and then follows his early years in Italy and beyond. It has forty-three sections and about twenty-five hours of listening, with a team of LibriVox volunteers sharing the work. As a record of a remarkable life and a vanished world, it is both entertaining and revealing. Listeners should be aware that Casanova wrote about himself with candour and that his version of events cannot always be checked against other sources. Even so, the book is an extraordinary social document, and the translator's own introduction helps place it in context. It is a long, absorbing journey through a vanished Europe.
Public domain
Giacomo Casanova died in 1798: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text