The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, Vol. IV: Adventures in the South

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

Rating 4.2
Word count
1M words
Chapters
105

Tags

English Originals General Biography Fate and FortuneRake's ProgressTravels and AdventuresLibertineComplex HumanityMemoirEighteenth CenturyEuropean Travel

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, Vol. IV (of VI), "Adventures In TheAuthor: Casanova, Giacomo, 1725-1798,Language: English, Class: D: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere, Release Date: Mar 29, 2012

Editor's review

This is the fourth of the six volumes of Casanova's memoirs, released free in English by Project Gutenberg. The volume continues Casanova's first-person account of his travels and adventures, offering a picture in which eighteenth-century European social customs, city life, and personal fortunes intertwine. Its value lies not in systematic historical record but in presenting, from the subject's own perspective, the texture of life and the psychology of character in an era. The prose carries the flavor of an older translation and moves at a leisurely pace, suited to readers willing to settle into long-form reading and interested in European cultural history and biographical literature. As a public-domain e-book, it is convenient for searching and comparative reading, and may serve as supplementary material for the study of eighteenth-century European social manners. Readers should note that the memoirs are marked by strong self-idealization and a legendary quality; they should be read alongside historical background material and not taken as fully reliable fact.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the opening introductions of characters and places in this volume, then proceed chapter by chapter; avoid skimming, which can break the thread of the narrative.
  2. Keep a map of Europe at hand to trace the cities mentioned and build a sense of space.
  3. Mark unfamiliar old-fashioned expressions and revisit them after finishing a chapter, so that frequent lookups do not disrupt the rhythm.
  4. Read alongside other memoirs or histories of manners from the same period to distinguish personal narrative from historical fact.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
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  18. 18
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  25. 25
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  51. 51
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  53. 53
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  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
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  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
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  73. 73
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  105. 105

FAQ

Is this book the complete memoirs or one volume of them? This is the fourth of the six volumes of Casanova's memoirs, titled "Adventures In The"; it is not the complete work. Before reading, it is advisable to learn roughly what the preceding and following volumes cover, so that relationships and the timeline do not seem abrupt.
Can I read this e-book if my English is not strong? The book is a public-domain English text with old-fashioned expressions and long sentences, so it demands a certain level of English reading ability. If your English is limited, you might first read a Chinese translation or introductory material, then sample chapters of interest against the English original.
Can the memoirs be taken directly as historical fact? They should not be taken directly as reliable historical fact. Casanova's narrative is marked by self-idealization and legend-making; it is best used as material for understanding the atmosphere of the age and an individual perspective, while specific events should be checked against independent historical sources.
What are the practical features of the Gutenberg edition? The Gutenberg edition is a free electronic text, convenient for searching, copying, and comparative reading on a computer or e-reader. It usually contains no modern annotations, so names of people and places must be verified independently.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

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.