Ange Goudar: un aventurier des Lumières (review)

Jean-Claude Hauc, in attempting to write a biography of Ange Goudar, has set himself a difficult task. Remembered largely because of references to him in Casanova's Mémoires, Goudar was indeed a typical aventurier of the period, but someone who has left very little in the way of personal recollections. Hauc wanted to correct the image of Goudar left by Casanova but he can rarely make Goudar come to life because we have next to no details about his gambling or his womanizing. Casanova remains the primary source material. Goudar left no mémoires, very few letters, just an enormous collection of pamphlets and brochures on whatever topic was of the moment. Even Sara, his 'wife', appears less shadowy because Casanova and others wrote plenty about her. Having said that, the biography is elegantly constructed and Hauc draws on his novel-writing experience to paint a good picture, but there is simply not enough material for the volume to work. 'Sans doute' has to be one of the most common phrases Hauc uses, forced to speculate in order to fill the gaps. Goudar's parade around Europe quickly becomes a list of place names and because he wrote so many pamphlets, they quickly become lists too. Even Goudar's more significant works are treated in broad terms: for instance there is nothing really on why the highly successful Espion chinois made the impact it did. The most interesting facet of his life is the economic context of his family background, sketched in with extensive reference to new source material. It is a shame that there is not enough material to draw on after that but those interested in economics, failed hommes de lettres or Italy during the eighteenth century may find elements of interest in the volume.