At fifty-three, exiled in Mantua and aching to return to Venice, Casanova is a diminished man: poor, restless, and nursing a bitter manuscript attack on Voltaire while waiting for a pardon that may never come. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance, Olivo, diverts his flight and leads him toward a country house where memory, vanity, and desire will collide. There, the past greets him in the warm figure of Amalia, but the true shock is Marcolina, a cool, brilliant young woman whose passion for mathematics and indifference to Casanova's fame expose his aging pride. As he tries to dazzle her with stories of former triumphs, Casanova instead finds himself undone by lust, humiliation, and jealousy, especially when he glimpses Marcolina's secret meeting with Lieutenant Lorenzi at dawn. What follows is a furious inward collapse: fantasies of blackmail, self-mocking rage, bitter reflections on immortality and decay, and an obscene hatred of beauty's inevitable ruin. Elegant, unsettling, and deeply psychological, this opening reveals a legendary seducer confronting the limits of wit, memory, and desire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
