Casanova (1725–1798), a Venetian who lived most of his life in exile from his beloved city, created myths about both himself and his Italian contemporaries. In this masterly biographical essay, Stefan Zweig examines the man and the city he left behind but never forgot. He notes that "imaginative writers rarely have a biography, and men who have biographies are only in exceptional circumstances able to write them . . . Casanova is a splendid, almost unique exception."