Histoire de ma vie
Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : Histoire de ma vie
Histoire de ma vie (Story of my Life) is the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, a famous 18th century Italian adventurer.
Despite Casanova being Venetian (born April 2, 1725, in Venice, – died June 4, 1798, in Dux, Bohemia, now Duchcov, Czech Republic), the book is written in French, which was the dominant language in the Upper class at this time. Also it covers his life only through 1774.
Contents of the book
The book comprises 12 volumes and approximately 3500 pages, covering Casanova's life from his birth to 1774 (although the full title of the book is Histoire de ma vie jusqu'à l'an 1797).Story of the manuscript
The first chapters of the book were allegedly written in 1789, during a profound illness of Casanova.In 1794, Casanova meets Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne. The two of them establish a mutual friendship. As the Prince expresses the desire to read the memoirs, Casanova decides to polish the manuscript before sending it for reading. After reading at least the first third tomes of the manuscript, Charles Joseph proposes to publish the memoirs to an editor in Dresden, in exchange for an annuity.
Casanova is convinced by his advice, but chooses another way to publish the manuscript. In 1797, he asks Marcolini Di Fano, minister at the Cabinet of the Saxony Court, to help him with the publication.
In May 1798, foreseeing his death, Casanova is alone in Dux, and he asks for members of his family that were residing in Dresden to support his last moments. Carlo Angiolini, the husband of a niece, travels without delay from Dresden to Dux, returning to Dresden after Casanova's death with the manuscript.
Carlo Angiolini dies in 1808, bequeathing the manuscript to his daughter Camilla. Because of the Napoleonic Wars, the period is not favourable for publishing the memoirs of a character belonging to a past age. After the Battle of Leipzig (1813), Marcolini remembers the manuscript and offers 2500 Thalers to Camilla's tutor, who refuses, having considered that the offer is too modest.
After some years, the Recession compromises the wealth of Camilla's family. She asks her brother Carlo to quickly sell the manuscript. In 1821, it is sold to the editor Brockhaus. Brockhaus asks Wilhelm von Schütz to translate the book into German. Some extracts of the translation and the first volume are published as early as 1822. The collaboration between Brockhaus and Schütz stops in 1824, after the publication of the fifth volume. The other volumes are then translated by another unknown translator.
Observing the success of the German edition, the French editor Tournachon decides to publish the book in France. Having no access to the original manuscript, the French text is translated from the German translation. Because of censorship, the text is heavily edited. The volumes were published from 1826 to 1838.
Because this new edition is also successful, another French pirate edition is prepared, also translated from the German edition. As the German edition was not entirely published at this time, this edition allegedly contains passages invented by the translator.
From 1838 to 1960, all the editions of the memoirs were derived from one of these editions.
The manuscript was stored in the editor's head office in Leipzig. By chance, the manuscript was removed in June 1945 to be stored in the new head-office in Wiesbaden just before heavy bombings heavily damaged Leipzig.
In 1960, a collaboration between Brockhaus and the french editor Plon led to the first original edition of the manuscript.
Quotes
- Digne ou indigne, ma vie est ma matière, ma matière est ma vie (Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life)
- Le lecteur qui aime à penser verra dans ces mémoires que n'ayant jamais visé un point fixe, le seul système que j'eus, si c'en est un, fut de me laisser aller ou le vent qui soufflait me poussait (The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led)
See also
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.