Casanova by Maxime Rovere (review)

this history of reception, as he underscores the fact that, while the remarkable text was basically ignored or ridiculed at the time of its creation, later poets, thinkers, and critics have sometimes manipulated it in equally inappropriate ways. By centering on the complex identity of the poem from theoretical, philosophical, and artistic standpoints , Roger shows the wide-ranging influence of Mallarmé’s poetic verse, as he examines the mise en scène, mise en image, mise en concept, and mise en page of the work in later adaptations, interpretations, and responses to the groundbreaking poem. This archive stands thus as an illustration of a certain kind of cultural archaeology, founded both on the methods by which twentieth-century figures have interpreted an important aesthetic antecedent, and on the ways in which a text can be transformed, in its nature and function, far beyond the frontiers of a purely literary sphere.Arguing that we need to move away from an overly intuitive interpretation of the poem as a kind of prototype of the avant-garde, Roger offers a multifaceted perspective toward the work, analyzing its various stages of reception. This study is divided into two substantial parts: “Histoire archéologique: la réception en discours” and “Transpositions : la réception en actes,”followed by a concluding section,including a“Bilan critique.” Through this organizational choice, Roger offers a detailed overview of what people have tried to do with regard to Mallarmé’s distinctive text.Following closely the cultural responses to Un coup de dés from its nineteenth-century reception through reactions from the 2010s, Roger traces the evolution of the Western understanding of the text’s impact, from a focus on the reaction of the Mardistes through an examination of the early psycho-critical analysis of figures such as Charles Mauron, through Robert Greer Cohn’s textual analysis, moving through Sartre and Blanchot, Deleuze and Butor, Richard and Jenny, and then turning to visual art and film, music, philosophy (unfortunately , a bit quickly covered). The volume offers a useful synopsis of the history of this inimitable work’s reception,and provides a helpful understanding of the inherently multidisciplinary nature of its aesthetic and intellectual impact. University of Oklahoma Pamela A. Genova Rovere, Maxime. Casanova. Paris: Gallimard, 2011. ISBN 978-2-07-030084-6. Pp. 304. 9,95 a. What more can be said about Giacomo Girolamo Casanova? This famous and infamous Venetian, whose name has become synonymous with such terms as rake and Don Juan, is the subject of a new addition to the Folio biographies collection. Maxime Rovere’s abbreviated retelling of Casanova’s lengthy memoir Histoire de ma vie encapsulates the peripatetic life of the Lothario from his birth in Venice (1725) to his death (1798) in distant Bohemia. Although Casanova’s text ends in 1774, Rovere continues to recount the last twenty-four years of his life, concluding with the publishing history of the Histoire, which is nearly as fascinating as Casanova’s life. The 240 FRENCH REVIEW 87.1 Reviews 241 inspiration for Rovere’s work derives from the 2010 acquisition of Casanova’s original 3,700-page manuscript by the Bibliothèque nationale de France for an unprecedented $9.6 million. The less expensive Folio edition includes three separate chronologies that make it easier to identify and place events, locations, lovers, and literary works in this busy biography.Since Casanova’s celebrity rests principally on his talents as a prodigious lover of numerous conquests, there will be readers scanning the pages for examples. They will not be disappointed.Rovere includes scenes of Casanova’s seduction technique with lovers of long and short duration, some of whom actually held a serious place in his heart. He also reveals the darker side to Casanova’s lovemaking. Although our hero took no pleasure in voyeuristic pursuits, he was a full-fledged libertine in all other respects. He seduced women of every caste, enjoyed sex with men to a lesser extent, had a predilection for ménages à trois, suffered bouts of syphilis and other venereal diseases, was fascinated by transvestism,and demonstrated his capacity for cruelty in the form of rape, incest, slavery and physical abuse. He could be...