june 1798 (1 Ergebnisse)

First edition hard back binding in publisher's original blue cloth covered boards, blocked and lettered gilt back. 8vo. 9'' x 6''. After a brief but passionate love affair with a Portuguese noblewoman to whom he sublet part of his Pall Mall house in return for unspecified companionship, Casanova became besotted by a Soho courtesan. French-born seventeen year old Marianne de Charpillon lived in Denmark Street, on the borders with St Giles, with her Swiss mother, grandmother and aunts- an unscrupulous group of women who specialised in fleecing rich men of their money. From the moment she met Casanova, she teased and tormented him. No matter how much he spent on her, and what gifts he lavished on her, she refused to have sex with him. A past-mistress of the art of manipulation, whenever Casanova tried to get away from her, Marianne reeled him back like a fish on the end of a line. Frustrated beyond measure, Casanova resorted to violence, for which Marianne had him arrested. He took his revenge by teaching a parrot to say, 'Miss Charpillon is more of a whore than her mother' and putting it on sale at the Royal Exchange in the City. Contains colour frontispiece of Marianne de Charpillon, 280 pp with 16 single-sided monochrome illustrations on loaded paper throughout. Light spotting to the closed text block edges, spine slightly sun faded and in Very Good condition, no dust wrapper. Member of the P.B.F.A. BIO (Résumé, Memoir).