The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova De Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 03: Military Career

Here is a man who reinvented himself so many times he became a legend. Volume Three finds Casanova at a crossroads: the cassock discarded, the ecclesiastical career abandoned, and a new identity as an ensign in the Venetian army waiting to be inhabited. From Bologna he sets out, resplendent in uniform, thrilling in the admiration of strangers, already crafting the myth of himself in real time. But the past proves difficult to outrun. Old acquaintances mistake him for what he used to be. Rumors circle. And in Therese, he finds a complication that has nothing to do with warfare. This is Casanova at his most transparently vain, his most achingly human: a man desperate to be seen as he wishes to be seen, not as he was. The prose fizzes with his peculiar blend of self-mockery and self-regard, offering an intimate window into the vanity, ambition, and sheer restless energy that made him one of history's most unforgettable self-inventors.