Items related to What Casanova Told Me: A Novel

Swan, Susan What Casanova Told Me: A Novel ISBN 13: 9781582344539

What Casanova Told Me: A Novel - Hardcover

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9781582344539: What Casanova Told Me: A Novel

Synopsis

A dazzlingly imagined novel that embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery of the legendary Casanova's last great love.

It's 1797, and an aging Casanova has returned to Venice in disguise to elude the authorities. There he meets Asked For Adams, the niece of American president John Adams, who is accompanying her father on a trade mission, just as Napoleon's army invades, throwing the city into chaos. Casanova convinces Asked For to abandon her future as the wife of a Yankee farmer and set out with him on a dangerous adventure through post-Byzantine Greece to Istanbul, which she records in intimate detail in her travel journal-until the account ends suddenly.

Two hundred years later this journal comes into the possession of Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant, an awkward and shy young archivist grieving her mother's death. En route to her mother's memorial service in Crete, accompanied by her mother's lover, and entrusted with delivering precious letters by Casanova to the Venetian library, she falls under the spell of the two adventurers and becomes determined to find out what happened to them.

As their stories interweave, both young women are touched by the spirit of Casanova, a man whose appetite for life and generous spirit ignites possibility everywhere he goes. By the end, Luce uncovers the fate not only of Asked For but of her own mother, and she finds herself set free by what she learns about travel, self-invention, loss, acceptance, and, of course, love.

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From the Inside Flap

The sixth daring novel from Canada's pre-eminent explorer of the sexual psyche is a dazzlingly imagined story that encompasses transformation, love, archaeology and freedom.

It's 1797, and an aging, lovesick Jacob Casanova enters Venice in disguise on a public barge. There he persuades Asked For Adams, the young Puritan cousin of American President John Adams, to set out with him on a romantic odyssey through post-Byzantine Athens and Istanbul, which she lovingly records in her travel journal.

Framing their adventure is the story of beautiful Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant and inheritor of her journal, who is on her way to her mother's memorial service with her mother's lover, Lee Pronski. She arrives in Venice full of expectations just as Casanova and Asked For did two hundred years earlier.

Using Asked For's journal as a guide, Luce travels through Venice, Greece and Turkey, and begins to see how she can seize experience and come to terms with her mother's love for her and for Lee. As the journeys of the two women come together, Luce finds her own way of moving through the world, and Asked For discovers how vulnerable the great Casanova was -- a man whose brilliance and generous mind make him a presence that still ignites possibilities.

Excerpt from What Casanova Told Me
Luce examined the letters first, untying the ribbon with her long skilful fingers. The staff at the Sansovinian would be pleased: not a drop of twenty-first-century moisture marred the paper bearing the watermark of the famous Italian printer Fabriano. The letters were written in French and Italian in a dramatic, eighteenth-century style. . . .

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Wives of Bath:
Lost and Delirious, the feature film based on this novel was released in 32 countries and featured at the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.

"Underneath the ribald, gothic tale of adolescent sexual awakening lies the dark, impenetrable web of gender paradox, made taut by the tension between what a young woman is, what she wants to be, and what society would have her become."
--The Gazette (Montreal)

"Each compelling plot twist comes as a shock and a surprise [and] grips and doesn't let go, until the truth is exposed."
--New York Newsday

"Singular modern panache and rare poignancy. . .extremely funny; rare verve and flare."
--The Sunday Times

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  • PublisherBloomsbury USA
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 1582344531
  • ISBN 13 9781582344539
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages336
  • Rating
    • 3.24 out of 5 stars
      194 ratings by Goodreads

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