- Casanova, the Venetian who lived most of his life in exile from his beloved city and created his own myth - which in turn is a reflection of the nature of the city itself - is the subject of this masterly biographical essay by Stefan Zweig. As Zweig describes in this volume: 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.