Casanova - The Man Behind the Name

Restrain yourselves, ladies! Don't look into his eyes.

CASANOVA

Noun. Early 20th century.

[Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (1725-98), Italian adventurer.]

A man who engages in promiscuous affairs.

Despite the rather one-dimensional definition that has become attached to his name, just a little reading into the life of Casanova shows that he was anything but an empty-headed love-machine. In fact, to call him an adventurer is a profound understatement - Casanova was a veteran traveller who moved within the beau monde of his day, a bel esprit who was variously a clergyman, a lawyer, a medic, a gourmand, a soldier, a gambler, a violinist, an entrepreneur, a spy, a philosopher and a writer. And yes, he seduced women - lots and lots and lots of women. Thus, despite being a profound intellect and polymath whose cerebral pursuits, some say, utterly eclipse his salacious bedroom antics, Casanova's name has become synonymous with charismatic cads and promiscuous wastrels the world over. His infamously captivating beauté du diable persists, however - in 2010 the original copy of his memoir Histoire de Ma Vie (Story of My Life) sold for $9.6 million, a book so shockingly raunchy that it was only available in English in bowdlerized form until 1960.

Have you read Histoire de Ma Vie?

Are you a Casavova?

Do please seduce us with your silky words by leaving a captivatingly charming comment in the box below.

(before you shamelessly move on to your next blog)