This BFS Entertainment (Canada) three disc video was fascinating and so well done that I listened to the entire miniseries twice! (OK I was also crocheting at the time!) Subtitle "The Key to Immortality is to lead a life worth remembering." So, Casanova started out in life as a musician - a fiddler - born into a theater family in Venice Italy.
His second chance in life was to go into the priesthood. He fell in with wine, women, and rich patrons.
He was also, like many at the time, someone who grew fascinated with the mystical search for the elixir of life (Kabbala and other interests not Catholic (though he apparently continued to worship and go to Mass into his elderhood), and perhaps sexual escapades were part of that. Maybe sexual experimentation was not the point at all. Or maybe in the 19th century in Europe love and romance were very much part of seduction?
I don't want to ruin this film experience for you by telling you the whole story... Of course part of the question is, do we have an erroneous view of the morals of 18th century Europe? Is the way he lived so unlike the way so many are living today?
C 2011 Christine Trzyna Book Review All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
