INTRODUCING

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Andrei Codrescu makes a stunning return to historical fiction, detailing the adventurous life and erotic times of the famed illuminist Giacomo Casanova.

In the national bestseller The Blood Countess, Andrei Codrescu brought to life the blood-thirsty royal Elizabeth Bathory, who embodied nearly all the contradictions of the seventeenth century. Now he depicts the astonishing life of the legendary Casanova, as the old adventurer relives his life while writing his memoirs in a provincial Bohemian castle at the end of the eighteenth century. Far from being defeated by age, Casanova delights in the maidservants, reacts with intellectual vigor to the unfolding of the French revolution, and collaborates with Mozart on “Don Giovanni.”

Long considered the rhapsodist of an age of aristocratic mirth and scandal, Casanova was also a first-rate intellect who corresponded and argued with Voltaire and Rousseau. His published work, besides the celebrated History of my Life, includes a multi-volume fantasy fiction novel that predates and anticipates Jules Verne; translations of Italian classics into French; and a number of plays that were produced on the great stages of Europe. Casanova's legend overshadowed his literary work which was, for the most part, not published until 1960. The fate of his work was nearly as fabulous and intriguing as that of its author. Still, even in abridged, bowdlerized, and fragmentary form, Casanova's memoirs have inspired writers as diverse as Flaubert, Stendhal, Herman Hesse, and now, Andrei Codrescu. Codrescu's vivid fictional account illuminates the enduring interest we still hold for this uncompromising and magical libertine, while imagining how his life would have continued if Casanova's immortality extended beyond the literary.

In Codrescu's retelling of the Casanova legend, readers are introduced to an age far less inhibited than our own, and far more interesting in its vices. At once a libertine, a defender of women, a reactionary, a revolutionary, a brilliant observer, and a visionary, Casanova was a man ahead of his time both in thought and in action. Finally in this inventive and absorbing work, Casanova is given due credit for his writings, his philosophy and, of course, for the amorous magic which has made him known to so many.

CASANOVA IN BOHEMIA was just published by The Free Press. Order now from Amazon.com and Andrei Codrescu will autograph your copy. Simply send your copy to Andrei Codrescu at Exquisite Corpse, PO Box 25051, Baton Rouge, La 70894, with an enclosed Stamped Self-Addressed Envelope (SASE).

You can also buy an autographed copy of Codrescu's collection THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS AND OTHER ESSAYS by emailing Andrei. Click here.