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The Story of My Life, Volume 1
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Series: The Story of My Life, Book 1
- Length: 47 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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Summary
The Story of My Life is the explosive and exhilarating autobiography by the infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova. Intense and scandalous, Casanova's extraordinary adventures take the listener on an incredible voyage across 18th-century Europe - from France to Russia, Poland to Spain and Turkey to Germany, with Venice at their heart.
He falls madly in love, has wild flings and delirious orgies, and encounters some of the most brilliant figures of his time, including Catherine the Great, Louis XV and Benjamin Franklin. He holds a verbal dual with Voltaire, a pistol duel with a Polish noble, and finds himself hauled before the court multiple times, including in London, where the judge in question turns out to be none other than Henry Fielding (The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling). His appetite for life is voracious; for him, a life lived close to the precipice is the only life worth living.
The book is divided into six sections. Volume One contains the first two sections: "Venetian Years" and "To Paris and Prison''. Translation by Arthur Machen
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about The Story of My Life, Volume 1
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rachel Redford
- 22-10-18
A life like no other
As shown by The Story of my Life , Casanova was so much more than the over-used tag ‘world’s greatest lover’. Born in 1725 in Venice , the masquerade carnival centre of Europe, to a theatrical family, Casanova’s life was an explosive, glittering theatrical performance. The Story of my Life from Naxos in 3 Volumes totalling 125 hours listening (!) is a massive, bold production, and the narrator Peter Wickham is totally convincing as Casanova.
Volume 1 covers Casanova’s first 30 dynamic years. As a 10 year-old he was sent to Padua (where he saw trees for the first time) and lodged with his tutor whose 14 year-old sister initiated the young boy into the ‘ game of love’ which from then on he pursued with exuberant joy. By the age of 16 two ‘ambrosial’ sisters were sharing his bed for masked ‘games’; by 18 he’d been expelled from his Murano seminary for an inappropriate bedfellow.
Wealthy patrons enabled Casanova’s gilded life in salons in Constantinople and Paris as well as Italy where his life was always lived dangerously to the hilt – dabbling in duels, kabbalistic fortune telling and spells; falling in love with women masquerading as men; servicing two beloved convent girls and nearly drowning in a storm as he returned one of them by gondola clandestinely at night; and undergoing recurrent mercury treatment for VD.
He always had an eye for a chance to make money, from gambling to selling a young virgin to Louis XV for his ‘parc des cerfs’. Sometimes his luck ran out. He attracted the attention of the Doge’s spies and ended up brutally imprisoned beneath the leads of the Palace. His highly dangerous escape over the roofs and finally crossing the border by donkey is a thriller adventure on its own.
4 people found this helpful
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- James
- 09-06-18
Transformational story
Highly entertaining visit to 18th century Venice, well read. A life well lived by an educated and amusing man
3 people found this helpful
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- Ed Pegg Jr
- 19-10-19
Extraordinarily interesting
Casanova has a great respect for his readers or listeners and stays with the interesting details, page after page, minute after minute.
For example, a few pages goes through an intrigue with sonnets and stanza, and he is hired to write some stanzas in reply. pretending to be the husband, but he writes them so that the lady will know the true author. Things unravel in an unexpected way. A typical novelist would have dedicated fifty pages to this, included all the poetry, but Casanova sticks purely to the parts that are fascinating. So just for that an utterly captivating fifteen minutes.
"Life is only a succession of misfortunes."
The narrator is wonderful as he tells the long tale.
5 people found this helpful
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- raji shankar
- 14-08-22
Censored
The translation of Arthur Machen, used for this recording, is based on a censored and reworked French edition of the text (the "Laforgue text"). It is a shame that Naxos decided to cut costs by using a substandard out-of-copyright text as the basis for the audiobook rather than using a more recent English translation of Casanova's actual work. Many listeners will be disappointed to have invested 150hrs in an "unabridged" translation of a censored adaptation of the original work.
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- Jessica Croft
- 04-08-22
Don't miss it! Listen to all three.
Wickam's narration is superb, and Casanova an unrecognised genius of his century. I aspire to have the courage and grace of this autobiographer.
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- Amaze
- 11-10-20
Tedious and long winded
The author may have been a great lover, but he was not a great writer. His expository skills are poor, and he goes on at great length about things that would be better compressed or omitted. I gave up after the first few chapters.
The narrator sounds a little tired. Maybe he was as bored by this material as I was.
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- Utente anonimo
- 26-09-20
Amazing
The narrator is as brilliant in his narration as Casanova is bold. Excited to hear the following books.
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- David Zehntner
- 07-09-20
Best adventure story ever
These memoirs are truly amazing. Listening through you will hear about an amazing life, great adventures, true philosophy, get a real view of society at the time, and be entertained the whole way through!
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- kyan-jo
- 29-08-20
The most brilliant narration of Cassanova
EXCELLENT LISTENING!! The reader makes you feel like you are listening to Cassanova himself!!
Could not put this book down.
I felt as if I were present there (probably as a fly on the wall) watching this Cassanova story in real life.
Brilliant narration by Peter Wickham