Used book – Casanova the Admirable, Philippe Sollers

"We think we know who Casanova is. We are wrong. We didn't want Casanova to be a writer (and let's say it calmly: one of the greatest writers of the eighteenth century). We made him into a showman. We relentlessly provide a false image of him. The directors who projected themselves onto him presented him as a puppet, a love machine, a more or less senile or ridiculous marionette. He haunts imaginations, but he worries them. We are happy to tell of his 'gallant exploits,' but only if we deprive their hero of his depth. In short, we are jealous of him, we treat him with a diffuse, pinched, paternalistic resentment. It would be better to finally conceive of him as he is: simple, direct, courageous, cultured, charming, funny. A philosopher in action." Philippe Sollers.