Casanova in Love

In addition to being a gifted writer, Andrew Miller is an extraordinarily skilled observer of human nature. I found "Casanova in Love" to be a keenly insightful look at human vulnerability in the face of two overpowering forces: age and love."Casanova in Love" is not by any means a biography of the great seducer: rather, through Casanova Miller explores the darker side of relationships. It is 1763, and a jaded 38-year-old Casanova finds himself in London, wealthy, notorious, yet restless. He feels something is amiss with his life, or rather, that the life he has created for himself is no longer enough to satisfy him: "[E]ach day another pig-white hair to pluck from nose or eyebrow, and in [his heart] the knowledge that the vertex had already passed, that there was nothing now but twenty, thirty more years of being Casanova: a tedious, more grudging re-enactment of the done."Already weakened by creeping self-doubt, the hunter becomes the hunted. Beautiful 17-year-old courtesan Marie Charpillon seems a veritable fountain of youth. For the rest of the book, in richly worded vignettes, some hilarious, some embarassing, Casanova's behavior is a catalog of the pathetic. He exemplifies the temporary blindness of those who try too hard to make someone else love them. After all, Charpillon herself had stated her goal as "making him fall in love with me, and then torturing him." Yet the mere sight of her deafens him to these words, and there seems to be no indignity he will not endure, always in the hope that this time, this one, will be rewarded with love in return.There is no love in this story, of course. Not in her abuse of him, nor in his obsession with her. Yet compared to her calculated humiliation of him, Casanova's obsession seems at least the forgivable honest mistake of a man trying clumsily to do what he believes is right, in this case, to love. Gambling is a recurring theme in the book, a reminder of the high stakes and the chances we take when we let our defenses down to someone else. A simplistic writer's approach to this book would have been to portray Casanova's torment as his just desserts for the way he'd treated other women. Miller rises above this inadequate theme. Casanova's tale is a parable for a million other relationships. It is a beautifully written warning against trying too hard to be loved, a brutal cautionary look at how we expose ourselves to being used if we open ourselves up to the wrong person.

Lydia Flem's stunning, intense biography "Casanova: the Man Who Loved Women" revealed him to be anything but a shallow, woman-hating libertine. This wildly generous autodidact, who was devoted to pleasure of all kinds, did indeed enjoy sex, but not mindlessly: he reveled in women who were intelligent and witty.Andrew Miller's lush, enthralling new novel is a wonderful companion piece to Flem's work. Starting late in Casanova's life when he was a virtual exile in Switzerland, surrounded by his memories, the book flashes back to a romantic misadventure in London. Living amid the "grubby and melancholy" English, a 40ish Casanova was surprisingly gulled and tormented by a woman he was hoping to seduce.Though based on Casanova's memoirs as Flem's book was, Miller's Casanova is more depressed and world-weary (and thus less original). But just as adeptly as Flem did, Miller evokes Casanova's amazingly complex life and paints a scintillating, evocative, erotic portrait of the extravagant 18th century.Lev Raphael, author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, the 4th Nick Hoffman mystery.

Miller's second book is similar to his first in that again he deals with large themes: the nature of life and death, happiness, and the human experience. And again, Miller's prose is lyrical and sensuously descriptive. But there the resemblance ends.Casanova In Love is a melancholy and contemplative piece, with a touch of ironic wit that never quite breaks out into open humor. What humor the book contains is at the expense of this love idol, the great Casanova, stumped at last in his most expert game. Casanova, in the grip of his mid-life crisis!Wanting to change the course of his life, Casanova tries to re-define himself. Unfortunately, he unwittingly tries to find an ultimate love through which to redefine himself, and in so doing, he ends up in the same role he has played so very many times before. And is defeated by his own disillusionments. Once the master of the game of love, he finds himself cynically trying to buy the woman he wants. He cannot believe in love as he used to, and is unable to see that this is the very reason he cannot succeed.The premise of this story is far tamer, and the pace and mood much steadier, than Ingenious Pain. It is less exciting; however it is no less thoughtful.

This is a very different book than Miller's first, Ingenious Pain, but just as brilliant. A comic tale about an aging Casanova, the woman he pursues and her harridan female relatives who harass him, it is alive with vibrant visceral and emotional details. This book shows Miller's range, and confirms that he is a novelist of original expression and talent. This book is even better the second time you read it.

In Casanova in Love, Andrew Miller humanizes the myth of the infamous womanizer created by Casanova himself in his autobiography. The story is set in 1763, a self-professed pivotal year in Casanova's life. The 38-year-old Venetian has moved to London to "reinvent himself". He soon finds himself in obsessive pursuit of the plain and conniving Marie Charpillon. It is this obsession that Casanova soon misinterprets as love--a love that is unrequited. Marie proves to be his ultimate match. The story's humor lies in Casanova's frustration and self-doubt as he is unsuccessful in seducing Marie. He has never been unsuccessful in his seductive pursuits. Miller lightens the story with details of Marie's string of temptations only to be followed by her rejection of Casanova's advances. During the London flood of 1764, Casanova realizes that he is drowning in his own self-doubt. His complexity is revealed. Miller uses the flood as a metaphorical device to reveal his vulnerability. "Is that death?.....One day forgetting to breath, forgetting to tell the heart to beat, the blood to run?" It was at this point in the story that I was drawn back to a profound discussion earlier in the novel between Casanova and his friend Samuel Johnson (yes, the lexicographer): "You are determined," said the Chevalier, "to discourage me. You may try, monsieur, but you shall not succeed. A man must be allowed to change." "A man, my dear Chevalier, is what he is. He must make the best of it. Simply by changing his coat he cannot become something else".......... "however we seek to push ourselves down our true nature will always float to the surface." I am reminded of the wonderful lyrics of a Randy Newman song: "You know, I just can't stand myself. And it takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend that I'm somebody else." Casanova was never quite able to find the right medicine in the right quantity to rid himself of his womanizing ways.