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Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova
#1

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

I was curious to see if anyone has had any interest in or has successfully finished reading the unabridged memoirs of Jacques Casanova? About a year ago, I downloaded all 30 free ebooks (from amazon) which comprise the entirety of the memoirs of this famous adventurer (and ubiquitous lady's man). It took me about a year of sometimes intermittent reading to make it through all of them, finally finishing the last book about 2 weeks ago. There would be times when I would go through an entire book in a day and other times when it would take me a few weeks to finish a single book; but in time, I always found a reason to come back to his memoirs, mostly because they are very well-written and the translator(s) have done a terrific job of putting this into English.

The man himself was a Venetian of non-noble birth who was born in 1725 and lived a very adventurous life filled with tales of violence, sexual conquest, riches, and desperate poverty. The memoirs start off with his childhood but quickly pick up steam into his early years when he is a teenager and loses his virginity via a threesome, with two sisters!!!

Among other things it is incredibly interesting to observe the obvious trials, triumphs, and tribulations of his chosen life of bachelorhood (seemingly managing to stay unmarried his entire life) and especially so in his later years. He describes a recurring yet difficult-to-describe feeling that he experiences every time he gets serious with a girl yet knows deep down inside his person that he will somehow be missing out or become miserable if he stays with her - the dreaded FOMO, anti-committment feeling which I can relate to so well. Furthermore, he provides some real insight into what life is like as a player after 50...which isn't always a rosy picture. It's fascinating to see his transformation as a man, even as his youth fades and women start to treat him more invisibly. It lets you see the obvious benefits and downfalls of this chosen lifestyle, in all of it's glory and misery!!

His book - which wasn't published until after his death - includes honest (Casanova insists they are entirely truthful) stories and general content containing the following topics through personal anecdotes and general musings of the world around him:
  • multiple duels in which he is personally involved
  • writing, reciting, and discussing poetry in depth
  • political, religious, and philosophical criticism
  • personal honor and demonstrating courage
  • serving time in prison on more than one occasion
  • orgies
  • prostitution
  • descriptions the general lifestyle of the 1700's in Western Europe
  • fighting off near-deadly infections
  • contracting and dealing with venereal diseases
  • grappling with the highs and lows of a gambling lifestyle
  • eating and drinking very well
  • regularly keeping the company and sharing stories of the rich, noble, and famously historical figures of that time
  • enlightening discussions on customs and cultures of that time
  • picking up women in all sorts of situations and using many different tactics, ranging from: social circle game, dance game, direct day-game, cave man game, indirect game, night game, pay-for-play, and even the long boyfriend game by professing love and emotions to a woman, buying gifts, and promising eventual marriage (which never appears to happen).
This last attribute is of course mostly where this man derives his immortal fame, sleeping with vast amounts of women. Casanova himself refers to his number being in the THOUSANDS in his book. I found it incredibly entertaining and interesting his specifically descriptive and poetic storytelling of his interactions and dialogue with women of many different ages and social strata. These detailed interactions really let me understand that not a lot has changed with women over the years on a fundamental basis, specifically their mental makeup, fickle nature, and presence of an emotionally-dominated hamster brain.

What makes all of his entertaining stories all the more impressive is that he was able to achieve all of this in an era without electricity (social media, dating websites, smartphones, lighting, RooshV forum, etc.), without airplanes or reliable transportation methods, without effective birth control (although he aludes to experimenting with an animal skin condom-like apparatus which was invented by the English), with much worse medical care, when duels were common, and during a time and culture when women would seriously consider killing themselves in the event they got pregnant outside of marriage in order to defend their "honor."

As a traveler and bit of an adventurer myself, I found a lot of very entertaining, well-written stories in his books, and really learned a great deal from this famous fellow. In total, I learned the following things from reading this book:

1) His book was written entirely in a second language, french, and later translated in English.

2) In my opinion, his evident success with women come down to several characteristics, which I will note here:
  • showing passion/emotion using words and behavior
  • demonstrating emotional vulnerability
  • showing courage (making the first move and defending the honor of yourself and your woman at all costs)
  • utilizing hand-written love-letters to maintain correspondence with current, past, and future conquests
  • having great hair and personal style without necessarily being good-looking
  • demonstrating an extravagant lifestyle that shows you have an understanding of nice clothes and accessories, comfortable lodging, and quality food and wine
  • being an excellent storyteller with a story to share in any situation
  • demonstrating wit and understanding its value in society
  • being very opinionated
  • being able to recite and compose poetry at the drop of a hat
  • and of course showing a TON of persistence in terms of pursuing desire and having the patience for the persistence to bear fruits.
3) He derived (and lost) a considerable amount of his fortune in his early years from gambling.

4) He details a very interesting method he uses to pick up girls in convents, which I'll call "convent game."

5) He doesn't appear to need to use alcohol much as a crutch to pick up women to give him more courage; he does however, gratuitously use alcohol to get his targets feeling uninhibited and merry, to excellent results.

7) He had healthy relationships with other men.

8) He fucked one of his daughters with enthusiasm.

9) He never backed down when someone challenged his honor, always accepting a proposed duel without hesitation.

10) He cries (bawls even) in front of women (and men) many, many times. This must have been one hell of an emotional guy. Although certainly the times may have been different and showing emotion as a man back then may not have had such negative societal repercussions then as compared to now.

In all, this was an entertaining, worthwhile read. I'd like to hear from any others who have read this or are thinking about reading it in the future. Specifically, what did you learn from his memoirs, and what struck you as most interesting or useful from Casanova's story? That's all for now.

Latin American Coffee Guide
-What other people think of you is none of your business.
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#2

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

Excellent report. I tried to read it, but I couldn't get past his teenage. I believe the complete memoirs is 3600 pages in pdf. I admire your patience.

Casanova seems to be the ultimate alpha male, but his credibility is seriously low. It's known that a big amount of his stories are imaginary. With Casanova, the only thing you can count on is his story-telling abilities. He seems to be someone who often loses the line between reality and imaginary. Nevertheless, he was one helluva guy.

Your post made me change my mind about giving it up. I will order paperback version and try it again, it's impossible for me to do it in epub or pdf. Did you read them on your laptop?
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#3

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

Casanova tells us about his successes as well as his failures in a reasonably candid style. Whether his stories are completely true or not - obviously I'm not in a position to say with any certainty that they are 100% true. I'd imagine there is some level of exaggeration in his stories and details that he got confused...but to be honest, any good-storyteller knows about using embellishing for effect. That being said, I believe that many of his stories have been corroborated by other sources and writers of that time.

I read them all on my kindle and downloaded them from Amazon. Apparently you didn't like the format but I found the format to be easy to deal with and super convenient, not to mention, free.

Latin American Coffee Guide
-What other people think of you is none of your business.
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#4

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

Giacomo is very interesting. He's mentioned briefly in two of Robert Greene's books. Funny thing is nothing has really changed in the 350 or so years when he was interacting with women. Women have the same desires now as they did back then. Except perhaps descretion was perhaps even more important as it could have cost both of you your life. Thanks for the tip BH, I will download all of these very soon.
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#5

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

Another book to add to the backlog of 'Universal Men'.

Out of the woodwork, into the night, onto the moonlit veranda.
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#6

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

For anyone interested, the first volume (of 30) of the format I read begins here: http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Casanova-V...F6HAKY4TE.

Latin American Coffee Guide
-What other people think of you is none of your business.
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#7

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

His entire memoire is available on the iBook store. I read it a few years back.
The translation was very good as there were very few awkward sentences that were inevitably lost in translation.

In fact, it may have been a free book or at least cheap, like $0.99. Definitely a good read but it's very long and not terribly easy to digest.

Grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference
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#8

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

More than halfway done with the book and OP is spot on with the description.

What Ive learned:
not much has changed since the 1700s when it comes to laying women and women’s behavior in general.

Marriage didnt stop women from cheating on their husbands

Experience in seducing women will make you a better seducer

Read. See attached.
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#9

Unabridged Memoirs of Jacques Casanova

Would like to get around finishing the entire memoirs, it's simply too time consuming. I do remember this quote in what I have read.

"His impeccable taste proved him to be a French man"

Casanova was a very flashy writer, & good at pandering.
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