At times magnificent, at times slow and plodding and just a shade too woolly to be as captivating as it could be, this is nonetheless a great introduction to the life of history's greatest lover.

https://youtu.be/vJKAkp25eDA ( )

This small book from Pushkin Press is a third of the original volume Zweig wrote (with essays on Stendhal and Tolstoy). It concerns Casanova about whom I knew little before reading it and it was good to flesh out the reputation I knew with some detail.

The concern of the book is as much autobiography as Casanova himself, Casanova being in Zweig's opinion unusual in both having a loved-to-the-full life and the ability to record it (mostly people living life to the full are too busy to write and writers spend most of their lives sat at a desk). For the time, the book was frank in its discussion of sexuality, doubtless part of Freud's influence on Zweig, and Zweig is in praise of Casanova's writing for its truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth (with a few memory lapses...).

The style of the book is perhaps not how it would be presented if written now, but it is nevertheless a lively and intelligent read on an interesting topic. ( )