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What Casanova Told Me
A dazzlingly imagined novel that embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery of the legendary Casanova's last great love.
It's 1797, and an aging Casanova has returned to Venice in disguise to elude the authorities. There he meets Asked For Adams, the niece of American president John Adams, who is accompanying her father on a trade mission, just as Napoleon's army invades, throwing the city into chaos. Casanova convinces Asked For to abandon her future as the wife of a Yankee farmer and set out with him on a dangerous adventure through post-Byzantine Greece to Istanbul, which she records in intimate detail in her travel journal-until the account ends suddenly.
Two hundred years later this journal comes into the possession of Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant, an awkward and shy young archivist grieving her mother's death. En route to her mother's memorial service in Crete, accompanied by her mother's lover, and entrusted with delivering precious letters by Casanova to the Venetian library, she falls under the spell of the two adventurers and becomes determined to find out what happened to them.
As their stories interweave, both young women are touched by the spirit of Casanova, a man whose appetite for life and generous spirit ignites possibility everywhere he goes. By the end, Luce uncovers the fate not only of Asked For but of her own mother, and she finds herself set free by what she learns about travel, self-invention, loss, acceptance, and, of course, love.
It's 1797, and an aging Casanova has returned to Venice in disguise to elude the authorities. There he meets Asked For Adams, the niece of American president John Adams, who is accompanying her father on a trade mission, just as Napoleon's army invades, throwing the city into chaos. Casanova convinces Asked For to abandon her future as the wife of a Yankee farmer and set out with him on a dangerous adventure through post-Byzantine Greece to Istanbul, which she records in intimate detail in her travel journal-until the account ends suddenly.
Two hundred years later this journal comes into the possession of Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant, an awkward and shy young archivist grieving her mother's death. En route to her mother's memorial service in Crete, accompanied by her mother's lover, and entrusted with delivering precious letters by Casanova to the Venetian library, she falls under the spell of the two adventurers and becomes determined to find out what happened to them.
As their stories interweave, both young women are touched by the spirit of Casanova, a man whose appetite for life and generous spirit ignites possibility everywhere he goes. By the end, Luce uncovers the fate not only of Asked For but of her own mother, and she finds herself set free by what she learns about travel, self-invention, loss, acceptance, and, of course, love.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 7, 2004
8 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Susan Swan
10 books110 followersJournalist, feminist, novelist, activist, teacher, Susan Swan’s critically acclaimed fiction has been published in twenty countries including the US, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia. She is a co-founder of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the largest literary award in the world for women.
Swan’s new book, Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir about Taking Up Space, was published by HarperCollins in Canada and Beacon Press in the US in May 2025. Big Girls Don’t Cry tells the story of how Swan’s Amazonian size shaped her life. To be tall is to be big and to be big is a no-no for women of all sizes, Swan writes. Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk says of Swan’s writing that it offers “not only an enjoyable read but the chance to think and reflect on the vast complex living entity that is the world.”
Swan’s other books of fiction include The Dead Celebrities Club (2019), a fascinating account of a Toronto-born tycoon jailed for fraud in the US; The Western Light (2012), a story about a girl’s love for a dubious father substitute who is also an ex-NHL star and convicted murderer; What Casanova Told Me (2004), a novel that links two women from different centuries through a long-lost journal about travels with Casanova in Italy, Greece and Turkey; Stupid Boys are Good to Relax With (1996), a collection of short stories about young women and how they relate to men; The Wives of Bath (1993), an international bestseller about a murder in a girls’ boarding school; The Last of the Golden Girls (1989), a novel about the sexual awakening of young women in an Ontario cottage country; and The Biggest Modern Woman of the World (1983), a saucy portrait of the real-life Victorian giantess Anna Swan who exhibited with P.T. Barnum.
A retired professor emerita at York University, Swan mentors creative writing students at the University of Toronto. As York’s Millennial Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies, she hosted the successful Millennial Wisdom Symposium in Toronto featuring writers and historians debating the lessons of the past. As a former chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, Swan brought in a new benefits deal for Canadian writers and self-employed Canadians in the arts.
Susan Swan makes her home and garden in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.
Swan’s new book, Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir about Taking Up Space, was published by HarperCollins in Canada and Beacon Press in the US in May 2025. Big Girls Don’t Cry tells the story of how Swan’s Amazonian size shaped her life. To be tall is to be big and to be big is a no-no for women of all sizes, Swan writes. Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk says of Swan’s writing that it offers “not only an enjoyable read but the chance to think and reflect on the vast complex living entity that is the world.”
Swan’s other books of fiction include The Dead Celebrities Club (2019), a fascinating account of a Toronto-born tycoon jailed for fraud in the US; The Western Light (2012), a story about a girl’s love for a dubious father substitute who is also an ex-NHL star and convicted murderer; What Casanova Told Me (2004), a novel that links two women from different centuries through a long-lost journal about travels with Casanova in Italy, Greece and Turkey; Stupid Boys are Good to Relax With (1996), a collection of short stories about young women and how they relate to men; The Wives of Bath (1993), an international bestseller about a murder in a girls’ boarding school; The Last of the Golden Girls (1989), a novel about the sexual awakening of young women in an Ontario cottage country; and The Biggest Modern Woman of the World (1983), a saucy portrait of the real-life Victorian giantess Anna Swan who exhibited with P.T. Barnum.
A retired professor emerita at York University, Swan mentors creative writing students at the University of Toronto. As York’s Millennial Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies, she hosted the successful Millennial Wisdom Symposium in Toronto featuring writers and historians debating the lessons of the past. As a former chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, Swan brought in a new benefits deal for Canadian writers and self-employed Canadians in the arts.
Susan Swan makes her home and garden in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 22, 2018
Adoro livros que têm um forte “sentimento de lugar”, ou seja, que me dão vontade de fazer as malas e ir percorrer os passos das personagens em viagem. Em “Casanova Revisitado” tive vontade de regressar a Veneza e descobrir as ilhas gregas e Istambul.
Luce é uma arquivista numa viagem contrariada com a amante da falecida mãe. As duas vão assistir a uma homenagem na ilha de Creta, onde a progenitora morreu num acidente. Os dias passados nas várias paragens são mais toleráveis graças a um antigo diário de uma antepassada – Asked For Adams – que viveu uma grande aventura (não só amorosa!) com Casanova, quando ele já estava no final da vida. Fascinada com a mulher independente que foi Asked For, Luce começa a percorrer os seus passos de há 200 anos, na tentativa de descobrir como acabou a sua proeza de acompanhar o maior libertino da História.
O livro decorre em dois tempos diferentes e confesso que gostei mais dos capítulos com Asked For Adams e Casanova. Luce é uma personagem um pouco irritante no início, como se todos lhe devessem e ninguém pagasse, mas com a descoberta da antepassada as coisas começam a melhorar. A autora descreve os diferentes locais por onde os personagens passam com tanta vivacidade que queremos estar lá, a descobrir os mesmos recantos. Foi curioso ler sobre um decrépito Casanova que tem dificuldade em aceitar que perdeu o fulgor da juventude. No entanto, tal com Hugh Hefner da Playboy, manteve-me fascinada até ao fim.
Luce é uma arquivista numa viagem contrariada com a amante da falecida mãe. As duas vão assistir a uma homenagem na ilha de Creta, onde a progenitora morreu num acidente. Os dias passados nas várias paragens são mais toleráveis graças a um antigo diário de uma antepassada – Asked For Adams – que viveu uma grande aventura (não só amorosa!) com Casanova, quando ele já estava no final da vida. Fascinada com a mulher independente que foi Asked For, Luce começa a percorrer os seus passos de há 200 anos, na tentativa de descobrir como acabou a sua proeza de acompanhar o maior libertino da História.
O livro decorre em dois tempos diferentes e confesso que gostei mais dos capítulos com Asked For Adams e Casanova. Luce é uma personagem um pouco irritante no início, como se todos lhe devessem e ninguém pagasse, mas com a descoberta da antepassada as coisas começam a melhorar. A autora descreve os diferentes locais por onde os personagens passam com tanta vivacidade que queremos estar lá, a descobrir os mesmos recantos. Foi curioso ler sobre um decrépito Casanova que tem dificuldade em aceitar que perdeu o fulgor da juventude. No entanto, tal com Hugh Hefner da Playboy, manteve-me fascinada até ao fim.
April 19, 2021
Unlikely, but imagine you are given this choice: spend an hour watching a rock or spend an hour reading this book. Which would you choose? Two hundred pages in and I have shifted my gaze to a rock. I daresay you will,too.
I don't like to criticize a book or dismiss a book just because it's boring, but when boring meets silly (as it does around the halfway point)... Well, really Miss Swan? What did you expect?
The fact that the plot as such drags itself along like a sled over gravel might be excused IF the characters took my interest. But by God Swan makes even Casanova boring. Swan seems to go out of her way to make these folks dull. It's a fatal flaw considering these people are utterly unappealing to begin with.
I can easily imagine a long, suffocatingly boring lunch with Luce...the wine getting warmer, the day getting colder as she goes on and on and ON about her recent trip to Italy and Greece.. summing everything up (in-spite of her supposed intelligence), 'Whatever' and stiffing me with the bill.
Too, the parallels between Asked For's (yeah) and Luce's (that's a name, too)experiences are far too obviously contrived. One simply cannot accept them. The philosophizing, theorizing (we actually have to read an essay by a 'renowned archaeologist' ) are the final links in the anchor chain that take this book to the bottom as surely as rocks in pockets. It's just, well. What DID you expect, Miss Swan?
And speaking of rocks, I think mine just moved. Fascinating. Take note, Miss Swan, take note.
I don't like to criticize a book or dismiss a book just because it's boring, but when boring meets silly (as it does around the halfway point)... Well, really Miss Swan? What did you expect?
The fact that the plot as such drags itself along like a sled over gravel might be excused IF the characters took my interest. But by God Swan makes even Casanova boring. Swan seems to go out of her way to make these folks dull. It's a fatal flaw considering these people are utterly unappealing to begin with.
I can easily imagine a long, suffocatingly boring lunch with Luce...the wine getting warmer, the day getting colder as she goes on and on and ON about her recent trip to Italy and Greece.. summing everything up (in-spite of her supposed intelligence), 'Whatever' and stiffing me with the bill.
Too, the parallels between Asked For's (yeah) and Luce's (that's a name, too)experiences are far too obviously contrived. One simply cannot accept them. The philosophizing, theorizing (we actually have to read an essay by a 'renowned archaeologist' ) are the final links in the anchor chain that take this book to the bottom as surely as rocks in pockets. It's just, well. What DID you expect, Miss Swan?
And speaking of rocks, I think mine just moved. Fascinating. Take note, Miss Swan, take note.
June 17, 2022
This story follows two young woman tied together by ancestry, alive in different centuries, a lost journal, and the mysterious Casanova.
I very much enjoyed this story. Following along as each woman found herself, the adventures of Ask For, and the Legendary lover Casanova, and couldnt put the book down until I was finished.
I very much enjoyed this story. Following along as each woman found herself, the adventures of Ask For, and the Legendary lover Casanova, and couldnt put the book down until I was finished.
July 18, 2021
The story of Asked For Adams and her friendship and love for the aging Casanova (Jacob) , told largely in journal entries and letters written to a “third party” make for an unusual and engaging story. The connected story set in the present day, following a young woman travelling to Greece with her mother’s partner to bid adieu to their shared loved one, is irritating and flat.
Of course the two women lovers are followers of goddess culture and worship. It really bugged me the way Swan described these women as middle aged caricatures and Luce as a moody adolescent despite being a professional archivist well into her 20’s. The storyline of these three women paled in comparison to the main storyline.
Luce is searching for love and is all bound up in the cultural baggage she has been freighted with - Greek myths, romantic novels and, of course, queer feminist theory. She imagines her mother’s lover “the Polish Pumpkin,” as she unkindly calls her, noting” “the signifier is looking for a non-existent object to signify.” And yet Luce “craves” a transportive, romantic kind of love on her own terms.
I did appreciate the line in a letter from Lee (the PP) to Luce exploring the way she and Kitty, Luce’s mother, behaved: “...sometimes it is unbearable to notice we are hurting those close to us. And if that person looks as if she is doing all right on her own, it’s easier to overlook the fact we aren’t paying her attention.”
Asked For has a unique voice - I loved her- particularly when she is able to shed the culturally ascribed (her father being perpetrator #1) negative impressions of her body which she calls “My Poor Friend”. It’s her height and overall size (which is left vague - is she fat? Just large due to her height? curvy ?) which enable her to “slip” in and out of situations that would otherwise be barred for her in the 1790’s. I loved her diary entries and the Inquiries and Lessons she records - such as:
“First Inquiry of the Day: What is the truest freedom? Freedom from or freedom to?
Lesson Learned: If it is true I am alone in the world, it is also true I am free in the world.”
Asked For rejoices in the beauty of men (194) - even aging men like her Casanova - which is a revelation for both of the novel’s main characters. One is constrained by the social expectations and rules of her time, while the other seems constrained by the feminist theory she has grown up with but even more so, by her own arrested emotional development.
While the voice of Giacomo Casanova is fabulous: “Our happiness will stop the ticking of the clocks,” I wonder why Swan felt the need to rehabilitate this notorious "womanizer".
A fun novel despite the clunkiness of the contemporary connection. Now that's I've written this I think it's more of a 3.5
Of course the two women lovers are followers of goddess culture and worship. It really bugged me the way Swan described these women as middle aged caricatures and Luce as a moody adolescent despite being a professional archivist well into her 20’s. The storyline of these three women paled in comparison to the main storyline.
Luce is searching for love and is all bound up in the cultural baggage she has been freighted with - Greek myths, romantic novels and, of course, queer feminist theory. She imagines her mother’s lover “the Polish Pumpkin,” as she unkindly calls her, noting” “the signifier is looking for a non-existent object to signify.” And yet Luce “craves” a transportive, romantic kind of love on her own terms.
I did appreciate the line in a letter from Lee (the PP) to Luce exploring the way she and Kitty, Luce’s mother, behaved: “...sometimes it is unbearable to notice we are hurting those close to us. And if that person looks as if she is doing all right on her own, it’s easier to overlook the fact we aren’t paying her attention.”
Asked For has a unique voice - I loved her- particularly when she is able to shed the culturally ascribed (her father being perpetrator #1) negative impressions of her body which she calls “My Poor Friend”. It’s her height and overall size (which is left vague - is she fat? Just large due to her height? curvy ?) which enable her to “slip” in and out of situations that would otherwise be barred for her in the 1790’s. I loved her diary entries and the Inquiries and Lessons she records - such as:
“First Inquiry of the Day: What is the truest freedom? Freedom from or freedom to?
Lesson Learned: If it is true I am alone in the world, it is also true I am free in the world.”
Asked For rejoices in the beauty of men (194) - even aging men like her Casanova - which is a revelation for both of the novel’s main characters. One is constrained by the social expectations and rules of her time, while the other seems constrained by the feminist theory she has grown up with but even more so, by her own arrested emotional development.
While the voice of Giacomo Casanova is fabulous: “Our happiness will stop the ticking of the clocks,” I wonder why Swan felt the need to rehabilitate this notorious "womanizer".
A fun novel despite the clunkiness of the contemporary connection. Now that's I've written this I think it's more of a 3.5
October 21, 2025
What an interesting title, one that initially attracted me to the book.
For most of us, the name Casanova heralds us back to stories of a lusty rogue chasing and seducing scores of women during his lifetime. He wrote a set of memoirs which detailed his travel adventures and his romantic liaisons, although it is difficult to ascertain the validity of his many tales. But Swan presents a different picture of this man who lived during the eighteenth century and traveled widely, living the life of an adventurer and meeting many of the well-known men and women of his day. She uses this premise to craft a very original historical novel about two women related by birth, whose stories are separated by over 200 years.
We are introduced to Asked For, a Puritan American niece of President John Adams, as she travels with her father on a trade mission in eighteenth century Venice. It is here that Asked For meets the elderly Casanova, a man who intrigues her. Asked For’s father is anxious to marry her off as he does not want her to have to make her way in the world without a husband. He already has her engaged to a farmer named Francis Gooch, a man five years younger who bores her and is ignorant of anything beautiful and grand. During their travels her father suddenly becomes ill with a fever and although he tries to exact a promise from his daughter before he dies that she will marry the man he has chosen for her, Asked For refuses. She is determined to escape her circumstances and to use this opportunity to release herself from this forced engagement. She gathers her courage and disappears with the aging Casanova, seeking a more adventurous life than the one her father had envisioned for her on a farm. Casanova has told Asked For that his long lost love Aimee who has borne his child, is imprisoned in the Ottoman sultan’s harem and he is on his way to find and rescue her. Asked For is determined to help him on his mission.
In the alternating story which occurs in modern times, we learn about twenty-seven year old Luce Adams, a distant relative and Asked For’s twenty-first century descendent. Luce is an archivist based in Toronto who is also beginning a journey. She is traveling with her mother’s lesbian lover Lee Pronski to a memorial for her mother who died in an automobile accident in Crete. Dr. Katherine (Kitty) Adams was an archeologist who embraced the controversial theories of prehistoric life that stressed the importance of goddesses. It was Kitty’s interest in the goddess movement that Luce was skeptical of and that eventually undermined the bond between them.
Luce is carrying some very old documents with her which she is to deliver to a library in Venice. They include Asked For’s diary, letters written by Casanova and another leather bound book which appears to be written in Arabic. As Luce follows much the same route as her ancestor Asked For, she reads Casanova's letters and becomes intrigued by her ancestor’s diary which tells the story of her travels with Casanova through the Mediterranean from Venice to Greece and Istanbul, a time during which they become lovers. Luce wants to find a love like the one reflected in Casanova's letters, rather than continue with the disappointing love affairs she has encountered up to this time. She longs to be swept away, but doesn’t want to lose all sense of self control.
Like Asked For, Luce has parental issues she must resolve. She is not only embarrassed by her mother’s legacy but was also hurt and jealous that her mother left and went off into a lesbian relationship with Lee.
Lee is still mourning the love she had for Kitty. Although she and Luce are travel companions, their relationship is strained, as each is jealous of the other for the relationship they had with Luce’s mother. And each has feelings of guilt about Kitty’s death. Luce is constantly sulking and Lee appears to be overbearing and pushy as she shepherds her dead lover’s daughter through the different locales she experienced with her former lover.
What happened to Asked For as she traveled with Casanova is revealed in passages from the diary which are alternated with passages of Luce’s present day experiences. There are many similarities in the two women’s journeys. Obligation is the prime reason each has crossed the Atlantic, Asked For to accompany her father and Luce to attend her mother’s memorial service. Each achieves important milestones in their life story. Asked For steps into another world and discovers a new self in Istanbul and Luce comes to terms with her mother’s death and her resentment of Lee as she begins to appreciate her mother’s personal and professional decisions.
Asked For, whose story is presented in the first person, is a strong, resourceful and courageous woman and a more engaging character than Luce Adams, whose story is told in the third person along with Lee’s. Luce has no self- confidence, constantly whines and regrets a life without love while Lee is a grumpy, matronly lady who is cynical and rather pushy. The author’s third person portrayal of these two characters helps put them in a more sympathetic light.
Casanova is presented in a very positive way, more as a philosopher than a predator who deliberately misleads woman. Yes, he is a bit of a rascal, a rogue and a master of disguise who eludes Bonaparte’s spies. But he is also charming and helps his lady companions appreciate their own physical pleasure as well as receive his own. He shares his belief that women have the same rights to sexual enjoyment, public accomplishment and respect for their intelligence as any man. And his advice on travel is the same as his advice on love, focusing on selection, satisfaction, seduction and separation. He urges travelers not to follow the dictates of their will but rather to go where pleasure leads, allowing themselves the comfort of graceful entrances and exits. As the title suggests, what Casanova says rather than what he does, is the most important part of his portrayal.
The text moves effortlessly between the journals of Asked For’s past and the events of the present as Luce experiences them. I found the early and middle parts of the novel more engaging than the latter, when it began to falter under the weight of Asked For’s experiences in her travels to Istanbul.
Swan provides interesting descriptions of Athens and Venice in the two time periods, but for the most part they serve only as the context for the personal journeys of the two women.
The author has crafted an ending that is a little too neat, but this is an engaging story and one that I enjoyed.
For most of us, the name Casanova heralds us back to stories of a lusty rogue chasing and seducing scores of women during his lifetime. He wrote a set of memoirs which detailed his travel adventures and his romantic liaisons, although it is difficult to ascertain the validity of his many tales. But Swan presents a different picture of this man who lived during the eighteenth century and traveled widely, living the life of an adventurer and meeting many of the well-known men and women of his day. She uses this premise to craft a very original historical novel about two women related by birth, whose stories are separated by over 200 years.
We are introduced to Asked For, a Puritan American niece of President John Adams, as she travels with her father on a trade mission in eighteenth century Venice. It is here that Asked For meets the elderly Casanova, a man who intrigues her. Asked For’s father is anxious to marry her off as he does not want her to have to make her way in the world without a husband. He already has her engaged to a farmer named Francis Gooch, a man five years younger who bores her and is ignorant of anything beautiful and grand. During their travels her father suddenly becomes ill with a fever and although he tries to exact a promise from his daughter before he dies that she will marry the man he has chosen for her, Asked For refuses. She is determined to escape her circumstances and to use this opportunity to release herself from this forced engagement. She gathers her courage and disappears with the aging Casanova, seeking a more adventurous life than the one her father had envisioned for her on a farm. Casanova has told Asked For that his long lost love Aimee who has borne his child, is imprisoned in the Ottoman sultan’s harem and he is on his way to find and rescue her. Asked For is determined to help him on his mission.
In the alternating story which occurs in modern times, we learn about twenty-seven year old Luce Adams, a distant relative and Asked For’s twenty-first century descendent. Luce is an archivist based in Toronto who is also beginning a journey. She is traveling with her mother’s lesbian lover Lee Pronski to a memorial for her mother who died in an automobile accident in Crete. Dr. Katherine (Kitty) Adams was an archeologist who embraced the controversial theories of prehistoric life that stressed the importance of goddesses. It was Kitty’s interest in the goddess movement that Luce was skeptical of and that eventually undermined the bond between them.
Luce is carrying some very old documents with her which she is to deliver to a library in Venice. They include Asked For’s diary, letters written by Casanova and another leather bound book which appears to be written in Arabic. As Luce follows much the same route as her ancestor Asked For, she reads Casanova's letters and becomes intrigued by her ancestor’s diary which tells the story of her travels with Casanova through the Mediterranean from Venice to Greece and Istanbul, a time during which they become lovers. Luce wants to find a love like the one reflected in Casanova's letters, rather than continue with the disappointing love affairs she has encountered up to this time. She longs to be swept away, but doesn’t want to lose all sense of self control.
Like Asked For, Luce has parental issues she must resolve. She is not only embarrassed by her mother’s legacy but was also hurt and jealous that her mother left and went off into a lesbian relationship with Lee.
Lee is still mourning the love she had for Kitty. Although she and Luce are travel companions, their relationship is strained, as each is jealous of the other for the relationship they had with Luce’s mother. And each has feelings of guilt about Kitty’s death. Luce is constantly sulking and Lee appears to be overbearing and pushy as she shepherds her dead lover’s daughter through the different locales she experienced with her former lover.
What happened to Asked For as she traveled with Casanova is revealed in passages from the diary which are alternated with passages of Luce’s present day experiences. There are many similarities in the two women’s journeys. Obligation is the prime reason each has crossed the Atlantic, Asked For to accompany her father and Luce to attend her mother’s memorial service. Each achieves important milestones in their life story. Asked For steps into another world and discovers a new self in Istanbul and Luce comes to terms with her mother’s death and her resentment of Lee as she begins to appreciate her mother’s personal and professional decisions.
Asked For, whose story is presented in the first person, is a strong, resourceful and courageous woman and a more engaging character than Luce Adams, whose story is told in the third person along with Lee’s. Luce has no self- confidence, constantly whines and regrets a life without love while Lee is a grumpy, matronly lady who is cynical and rather pushy. The author’s third person portrayal of these two characters helps put them in a more sympathetic light.
Casanova is presented in a very positive way, more as a philosopher than a predator who deliberately misleads woman. Yes, he is a bit of a rascal, a rogue and a master of disguise who eludes Bonaparte’s spies. But he is also charming and helps his lady companions appreciate their own physical pleasure as well as receive his own. He shares his belief that women have the same rights to sexual enjoyment, public accomplishment and respect for their intelligence as any man. And his advice on travel is the same as his advice on love, focusing on selection, satisfaction, seduction and separation. He urges travelers not to follow the dictates of their will but rather to go where pleasure leads, allowing themselves the comfort of graceful entrances and exits. As the title suggests, what Casanova says rather than what he does, is the most important part of his portrayal.
The text moves effortlessly between the journals of Asked For’s past and the events of the present as Luce experiences them. I found the early and middle parts of the novel more engaging than the latter, when it began to falter under the weight of Asked For’s experiences in her travels to Istanbul.
Swan provides interesting descriptions of Athens and Venice in the two time periods, but for the most part they serve only as the context for the personal journeys of the two women.
The author has crafted an ending that is a little too neat, but this is an engaging story and one that I enjoyed.
December 10, 2017
Good time period research, but too slow for my taste, not enough of a plot to hold my interest.
March 13, 2019
Was not what I expected, or wanted.
July 14, 2019
Love and travel!
April 18, 2024
Story progresses at the pace of a sloth. Took me half the book to warm up to the plot line and even then the storyline did not get all that more interesting.
June 17, 2016
Pro:
- liked the idea of dual-timeline story, with one protagonist in the present learning about and partially retracing the physical and psychological journey of her ancestor protagonist
- great settings: Venice, Istanbul, Athens
- best character: Asked For Adams, the Puritan young woman who travels to Europe with her father and fiance and then, when certain circumstances arise, chooses to forge on without them rather than going back home
Con:
- felt like the cover testimonials promised way more than was delivered
- Casanova is an older man at the time of "his" storyline, and while at first he engaged me with his almost innocent curiosity and enthusiasm about life, and his knack of perceiving the good and beautiful in (almost) all people and places and things he encounters, as time went on he disappointed me in what seemed like opportunism towards the women who happen to be around, and ultimately failing to treat Asked For differently than others (since this different way of interacting with her initially was part of his charm)
- I spent the whole story swinging between mild and intense irritation for the protagonist of the contemporary storyline, Luce. I kept telling myself that I should cut her some slack, seeing as how she had recently lost her mother in a car accident in Greece (she has accepted her mother's lover's invitation to go on a trip there to retrace some of her steps and celebrate her archaeological work) , but the sense that kept overriding that compassion was annoyance at her dogged petulance. The mother's lover keeps referring to her as "the girl", which made me picture Luce as a self-involved teen or early 20's person, so the discovery later on that she is a decade more than that pretty much killed the compassion. People keep reaching out to her, and she either holds herself aloof or mocks them or both. It did not help matters that she goes through her entire European trip consuming other people's funds and services without any indication of pulling her own weight, or gratitude at what they are doing for her.
Overall: Recommended for readers who have a special interest in Puritan characters, or Casanova. Not recommended for readers who like all of their protagonists to go through a discernable growth arc (in this case, its one out of two who achieves this).
- liked the idea of dual-timeline story, with one protagonist in the present learning about and partially retracing the physical and psychological journey of her ancestor protagonist
- great settings: Venice, Istanbul, Athens
- best character: Asked For Adams, the Puritan young woman who travels to Europe with her father and fiance and then, when certain circumstances arise, chooses to forge on without them rather than going back home
Con:
- felt like the cover testimonials promised way more than was delivered
- Casanova is an older man at the time of "his" storyline, and while at first he engaged me with his almost innocent curiosity and enthusiasm about life, and his knack of perceiving the good and beautiful in (almost) all people and places and things he encounters, as time went on he disappointed me in what seemed like opportunism towards the women who happen to be around, and ultimately failing to treat Asked For differently than others (since this different way of interacting with her initially was part of his charm)
- I spent the whole story swinging between mild and intense irritation for the protagonist of the contemporary storyline, Luce. I kept telling myself that I should cut her some slack, seeing as how she had recently lost her mother in a car accident in Greece (she has accepted her mother's lover's invitation to go on a trip there to retrace some of her steps and celebrate her archaeological work) , but the sense that kept overriding that compassion was annoyance at her dogged petulance. The mother's lover keeps referring to her as "the girl", which made me picture Luce as a self-involved teen or early 20's person, so the discovery later on that she is a decade more than that pretty much killed the compassion. People keep reaching out to her, and she either holds herself aloof or mocks them or both. It did not help matters that she goes through her entire European trip consuming other people's funds and services without any indication of pulling her own weight, or gratitude at what they are doing for her.
Overall: Recommended for readers who have a special interest in Puritan characters, or Casanova. Not recommended for readers who like all of their protagonists to go through a discernable growth arc (in this case, its one out of two who achieves this).
March 11, 2013
"Os pontos negativos neste livro, apesar de poucos, foram fortes o suficiente para me fazer não adorar a obra. Primeiro ponto, a insistência em traduzir o nome de Giacomo Casanova, por Jacob Casanova. Isto está tão errado! Seria a mesma coisa de eu dizer que Casanova Revisitado é escrito por Susana Cisne. Não faz sentido. Se é Giacomo, é Giacomo. E não Jacob. O segundo ponto, foi a escolha dos nomes no livro. Eu sei que posso estar a ser picuinhas e que não tenho nada a ver com a liberdade de cada escritor, mas uma personagem que se chama Asked For Adams? De cada vez que o seu nome aparecia tinha vontade de me coçar. Tem explicação o nome... mas isso não faz com que eu goste mais dele. E Lee? Que confusão ao início, antes de conseguir perceber que era uma mulher... Pronto. Preferi começar pelos pontos negativos para assim me poder debruçar sobre o quão fantástico este livro é."
Leiam o resto em http://eu-e-o-bam.blogspot.pt/2013/03...
Leiam o resto em http://eu-e-o-bam.blogspot.pt/2013/03...
April 17, 2020
This was a very slow-moving book. I picked it up on a whim at the bookstore, and now I'm regretting spending $25 on it. The idea of the story is very interesting, but the execution of it was poorly done. Luce Adams is traveling with her dead-mothers female lover Lee, to Venice and Athens. She's there to give important family documents to the Sansovinian Museum in Venice, pertaining to her ancestors travels with the great Cassanova.
As she travels, she reads the diary of Asked For Adams. The ancestor that traveled with Cassanova on his journey to Constantinople in 1797. This part of the story was interesting but still slow. And the story-line of Luce and Lee was strained.
Overall, this book had great potential, but I just couldn't get into it. From beginning to end, there was no real high point. I trudged on thinking something exciting had to happen, but nothing. Not something I recommend, save your money.
As she travels, she reads the diary of Asked For Adams. The ancestor that traveled with Cassanova on his journey to Constantinople in 1797. This part of the story was interesting but still slow. And the story-line of Luce and Lee was strained.
Overall, this book had great potential, but I just couldn't get into it. From beginning to end, there was no real high point. I trudged on thinking something exciting had to happen, but nothing. Not something I recommend, save your money.
February 3, 2008
Luce's mom has died, and she's traveling to Crete for the burial services. Accompanying Luce is Lee, her mom's lover. Luce is also giving to a museum several letters from Jacob Casanova that belonged to her ancestor Asked-For Adams, the niece of President Adams. This book is an intersting blend of past and present. Luce carries Asked-For's journal,which ends abruptly. Luce must find out what happened to her ancestor, and come to peace with her mother's death and her mother's lover. It wasn't exactly a page-turner for me until closer to the end. Of course, I didn't always have the time to turn the pages. I wish the text of the journal and the text of the rest of the book were different. It was sometimes difficult to distinguish the two, even if there was a date heading an entry.
October 8, 2010
Not my usual reading fare, and not really my cup of tea, either. This book is well crafted, though, and I very much enjoyed both of the protagonists--present-day Luce, and her ancestor Asked For. The book got a little tedious at times, and it felt bogged down because it was going in so many directions. But it's a solid story, with interesting twists and turns, and likable narrators.
June 17, 2009
What Casanova Told Me: A Novel by Susan Swan is an epistolary style novel, which generally I loathe to read, but this book was quite engaging! Isn't it odd how I find myself quite enjoying historical fiction? Never thought I would.
May 12, 2013
This was probably the worst novel I ever read in my entire life. If it were possible to give it zero stars, I would do that. No sense of history. Politically correct. Pretentious. Don't waste your time.
October 20, 2008
The description of this book looks really good, sadly I just can't get into it. Maybe I will try it later, when I am not distracted. I am just struggling with wanting to read it.
September 11, 2010
Interesting tale of historical nature.
February 8, 2012
This book made me want to pack my bags and take to the seas looking for love and adventure. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, sexy and inspiring read.
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