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joymargot's review against another edition
2.5
Beautifully written as always but I did not enjoy spending time with these characters.
scarpuccia's review
4.0
A fictitious account of the period Casanova spent in London when he was thirty-eight. Here he falls in love with a young beauty who is immune to his charm and lovecraft.
Without question it's the beauty of the writing that is the stand out feature. Especially the descriptive writing. Miller does a great job of bringing to life London in 1763. Unfortunately, he's less successful with his character studies. This is my third or fourth Miller novel and once again I couldn't help feeling his fabulous way with words deserved a more compelling story. There isn't much at stake in this novel. Neither does Casanova really come alive. Miller likes writing about loners. A problem with this is that it's often relationships which make compelling stories. If a novel doesn't feature at least one compelling relationship it's likely to flounder. And this is the case here. Casanova's relationship with the girl is repetitive. We see the same moment played out over and over again. Apart from the girl the only other meaningful relationship Casanova has is with his valet which veers close to cliché - the servant wiser than the master. Casanova is a very beautifully written novel but for me lacked a pivotal guiding light.
Without question it's the beauty of the writing that is the stand out feature. Especially the descriptive writing. Miller does a great job of bringing to life London in 1763. Unfortunately, he's less successful with his character studies. This is my third or fourth Miller novel and once again I couldn't help feeling his fabulous way with words deserved a more compelling story. There isn't much at stake in this novel. Neither does Casanova really come alive. Miller likes writing about loners. A problem with this is that it's often relationships which make compelling stories. If a novel doesn't feature at least one compelling relationship it's likely to flounder. And this is the case here. Casanova's relationship with the girl is repetitive. We see the same moment played out over and over again. Apart from the girl the only other meaningful relationship Casanova has is with his valet which veers close to cliché - the servant wiser than the master. Casanova is a very beautifully written novel but for me lacked a pivotal guiding light.
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