and his reputation is still alive. Men think of him with envy and jealousy, because they all would be happy to be in Casanova’s shoes. But of course, they do not admit it…

Who was this not so good-looking but without doubt brilliant man, who was as brave to take a trip into literature as he was to travel in love.  He translated Homer’s Ilias, wrote drama, script, poems, historical projects and a sci-fi story. What did he know that other men do not know now?  

Casanova was born on 2^nd April, in 1725. He was the first child of a play-actor family in Venice. His father died when he was eight years old, and his mother Zanetta (Gianetta) Farusi was the daughter of a Venetian shoemaker. Unfortunately her life and maybe her only lover were the stage and flare.

The eight year old child was sickly and her step-father, a Venetian patrician trusted him on a young priest, doctor Gozzi - to educate him. Casanova was grateful to him for teaching him science and he was also thankful to Gozzi’s sister for his very first lesson in love. Casanova was fifteen when he went back to Venice and with his mother’s help; he got a good position in the aristocratic priests’ society. But he found out very soon that this was not his business, so he left this company and went back to Padua, where he appeared a year later as a lawyer. After this time his life became very exciting and full of adventures, with love – as a main problem – in its centre.

Casanova was fascinated by women, he felt that he needed to be involved in their world and get to know everything about them. He was devoted to women just as others devoted themselves to their jobs or hobbies. Each woman represented a different challenge for him, so he devised individual seduction techniques for each.

That’s when his long journey began, with stops in Germany, Switzerland, Savoya, Southern France, Florence, Rome, London, Berlin and Riga. Later he was in Paris where he introduced the lottery in 1757. This resulted in financial success for him which led the local aristocracy to accept him. But as we know very well, Fortuna is very moody…, so Casanova also lost all his property and run away from his creditors as a Knight of Seingalt. At this time he started to drift from country to country, from Germany, Switzerland, Savoy, South France, Florence, Tome, London, Berlin, Riga, and St. Petersburg to Warsaw. He had to escape from Warsaw because of a scandal that exploded after a duel.    

As the years went by, our hero whose hair was getting grey got his most restful job in Count Waldstein’s castle in Duix as a librarian. He stayed there from 1785 till his death. He finished his master job, his memoirs that consist of twelve books.

Many people many times tried to figure out his secret; many books, essays and films are looking for the answer to the question: how was he so successful in seducing women. Maybe there is no answer. He was just able to speak, or what is more important he was able to understand the ladies’ language.

The era’s most famous man says the philosophy of his life: “I am able to feel, so I’m alive”.  His life finished in Duix on 4^th June, 1798.

Orbán Erika