The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 12: Return to

Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9

Word count: 251K words
Chapters: 26

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 12: Return toAuthor: Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798,Language: English, Class: D: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere, Release Date: Dec 11, 2004

Editor's review

Volume 12 of The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt belongs to the closing phase of this monumental eighteenth-century autobiography. This English edition, prepared and released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain electronic text, poses challenges mainly in language and background knowledge rather than in the scarcity of editions. Its value lies in offering a first-person view of an inveterate European traveler observing social life, city living, and personal fortunes under the ancien régime; the narrative is strongly shaped by self-fashioning, so it can be read both as a literary memoir and as corroborating material on eighteenth-century European customs. Readers should note that Casanova's account is not a strictly reliable historical record: exaggeration and selective memory are part of the text, so it is best read with a critical eye. This volume suits readers who have already read several earlier volumes and wish to follow the narrative thread continuously, and also those interested in the memoir genre and eighteenth-century European cultural history. For courses or reading groups, it is advisable to pair it with introductory materials and to discuss autobiographical truthfulness and narrative strategy.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read several earlier volumes of Casanova's Memoirs and wish to continue following the narrative
Readers of history and literature interested in eighteenth-century European social customs and city life
Literature students studying autobiographical form and first-person narration
Readers able to read English and accustomed to public-domain electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous historical scholarship or chronicle-style records
Beginning readers who find English difficult and need detailed annotations
Readers with little interest in the personal emotions and social anecdotes of a memoir

Reading tips

Read the opening transitional passages first to review characters and places from earlier volumes and avoid losing the thread.
Keep a brief table of characters and places, noting them as you read, to reduce the difficulty of tracking a long memoir.
Annotate passages that seem exaggerated or doubtful, distinguishing the narrator's account from verifiable historical fact.
Read alongside eighteenth-century European travel writing or epistolary works to compare different narrative perspectives.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read Volume 12 directly without having read the previous eleven volumes?

You can try, but the experience will suffer. This volume continues character and travel threads from earlier text, and without that background it is easy to feel disconnected from the sequence of events and relationships. It is advisable at least to learn the main outlines of the earlier volumes, or to read a reliable introduction to Casanova's life before starting this volume.

Can this memoir be used as historical source material?

It can serve as corroborating material, but it should not be treated as rigorous historical evidence. Casanova's narrative shows clear self-glorification and dramatic shaping, and some details cannot be verified. The safer approach is to treat it as a text of eighteenth-century European social customs and autobiographical form, reading it alongside contemporary letters, periodicals, or archives rather than drawing conclusions from its account alone.

What should I keep in mind when reading the Gutenberg English text?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text that generally preserves the wording and punctuation habits of the original translation and has few annotations. Readers need to supply their own background materials and slow down when encountering archaic spellings or long sentences. If quoting, verify the specific passage and edition information, and avoid mistaking electronic formatting differences for differences in the original text.

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About the author

Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798 Author

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) is known to the world for his autobiographical memoirs, The Story of My Life. This database holds forty of his works, most of them complete or partial editions of those memoirs, including volumes on his Venetian years and on his time in Paris and London, as well as one volume recounting his encounters with Voltaire. Written in the first person, these texts describe his travels across Europe, his social life and his romantic experiences in a candid, lively style rich in detail, and they are valued both as personal confession and as a record of eighteenth-century social customs. The memoirs have long been regarded as a distinctive work of autobiographical literature, offering readers a vivid picture of urban life and social culture in contemporary Europe. Because public information is limited, details of his biography cannot be firmly established; this entry therefore presents his writing solely on the basis of the works themselves, which are commonly classified as inspirational and personal-growth reading.