Casanova in Bohemia : A Novel - Hardcover

Codrescu, Andrei

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684868008 ISBN 13: 9780684868004

Publisher: Free Press, 2002

Synopsis

In his national bestseller The Blood Countess, Andrei Codrescu brought to life the bloodthirsty royal Elizabeth Bathory, who embodied nearly all the contradictions of the seventeenth century. Now he depicts the astonishing life of the legendary Casanova, as the old adventurer relives his life while writing his memoirs in a provincial Bohemian castle at the end of the eighteenth century. Far from being defeated by age, Casanova delights in the maidservants, reacts with intellectual vigor to the unfolding of the French Revolution, and collaborates with Mozart on Don Giovanni. Long considered the rhapsodist of an age of aristocratic mirth, scandal, and innumerable affairs, Casanova was also a first-rate intellect who corresponded and argued with Voltaire and Rousseau. His published work, besides the celebrated History of My Life, includes a multivolume fantasy fiction novel that predates and anticipates Jules Verne; translations of Italian classics into French; and a number of plays that were produced on the great stages of Europe.
In Codrescu's retelling of the Casanova legend, readers are introduced to an age far less inhibited than our own, and far more interesting in its vices. At once a libertine, a defender of women, a reactionary, a revolutionary, a brilliant observer, and a visionary, Casanova was a man ahead of his time both in thought and in action. Finally, in this inventive and absorbing work, Casanova is given due credit for his writings, his philosophies, and, of course, for the amorous magic that has been made known to so many.

About this title

About the Author

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, and essayist whose work is often heard on National Public Radio. He has written and starred in the Peabody Award-winning film Road Scholar. His previous novels include Messiah and The Blood Countess. He is also the author of such nonfiction books as Ay, Cuba!: A Socio-Erotic Journey, The Devil Never Sleeps, and An Involuntary Genius in America's Shoes (and What Happened Afterwards). Mr. Codrescu edits the cyber-zine Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters and Life (www.corpse.org) at Louisiana State University.

Reviews

Poet, novelist, essayist and much-admired NPR commentator Codrescu (The Blood Countess) offers a ribald history of the final years of the infamous satyr. The novel imagines Giacomo Casanova the son of an Italian actor, who began his career as a lifelong seducer of women when he was kicked out of the seminary for dallying with the nuns in the twilight of a lifetime flamboyantly checkered by peccadillo and achievement. Scarcely a year after escaping prison and still in his early 30s, he made and lost a fortune when he introduced the lottery in Paris. At the age of 60, under the nom de plume Chevalier de Seingalt, he assumes the post of librarian for Count Waldstein at Dux Castle in the kingdom of Bohemia. Arranged around an outline of European history from 1785 to the year of Casanova's death in 1798, his reminiscences evolve in a sequence of nightly visits by an intelligent, precocious and sexually agreeable maidservant, Laura Brock, and her younger protege, Libussa Moldau. Codrescu evokes (and takes liberties with) the historical events of the French Revolution and unblushingly drops the names of such icons as Franklin, Goethe, Mozart and Marie Antoinette into the mix. They are put to good, kinky use: Casanova so excites Laura with a story about an argument that he once had with Voltaire about poetry that she begins to lactate. Codrescu fans will enjoy this tongue-in-cheek patchwork of bawdy escapades.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

As in his earlier novel, The Blood Countess, Codrescu here brings to life a historical character, depicting Casanova the man, the myth, and his times. In the 1790s, Giacomo Casanova is an old man living at the castle of Count Waldstein at Dux near Prague and working as a cataloging librarian in the count's library. In conversations with a young woman servant he has befriended, he relates episodes from his past life as he finishes work on a fantasy novel titled Icosameron and begins writing his mammoth memoirs. Although Casanova is past his prime, sexual activity of various styles and combinations still seems to occur whenever he is around. Codrescu presents Casanova as representative of an old world order that is slipping away, as the ideas that gave rise to the American and French revolutions are radically changing the political, social, and cultural landscape of Europe. Though factually based, the novel also incorporates almost dreamlike meetings and philosophical discussions between Casanova and Goethe, Hegel, and even Sartre. Casanova is portrayed as a weakening but still forceful old man, full of warmth, humor, and intelligence. Very entertaining and well written, this novel is recommended for all libraries. Jim Coan, SUNY at Oneonta
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684868008
• ISBN 13: 9780684868004
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336