First published 1999
Giacomo Casanova steps off the boat in London during the summer of 1763. At thirty-eight, he hopes England will offer him peace from years of wandering and romantic entanglements across Europe. His plans for quiet reflection crumble when he encounters Marie Charpillon, a captivating young woman whose beauty stops him cold. What begins as another conquest becomes an obsession that consumes him completely. Marie proves unlike any woman he has known, slipping through his fingers each time he believes victory is within reach. His failed attempts to win her drive him to remake himself entirely. He tries manual labor, then writing, then the life of a country gentleman. Each new identity fails to capture her heart or heal his own growing desperation. Miller draws from actual events in the legendary seducer's life to reveal a man far more vulnerable than history remembers. This is Casanova stripped of his usual confidence, forced to confront his own limitations in a society as morally flexible as he is.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: England, Europe, London
Period: 1763, 19th-century
277 pages · Paperback · Hodder & Stoughton