Casanova's drive home

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The 63 year old Casanova

Casanovas Heimfahrt is a novella by Arthur Schnitzler that appeared in the summer of 1918 in the literary magazine Die Neue Rundschau in Berlin. In the same year the story was published in book form by S. Fischer .

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In 1778, when he was 53 years old , Casanova was waiting in Mantua for a sign from Venice: The Council of Ten should end the 25-year banishment of the now impoverished Venetian from his hometown. While waiting, Casanova meets his modestly affluent friend Olivo. Casanova once had an affair with his wife Amalia, now the mother of three young girls. Amalia still loves Casanova and wants to revive the affair. But Casanova wants to seduce the young Marcolina, a very young niece of Olivos. Amalia tries to talk him out of it. The beautiful young lieutenant Lorenzi was Marcolina's lover. Casanova knows better. Lorenzi has received a basket from Marcolina. The girl studies mathematics in Bologna and spends the holidays with relatives. Casanova, who is about to gain fame as a writer with a polemic against Voltaire , finds in the beautiful and learned Marcolina an opponent who is well-versed in philosophy and who impresses with her sharpness of mind. Both philosophize about the god-denier Voltaire.

Olivo offers diversion to the cosmopolitan guest. Marchese Celsi comes to Olivo's estate. You play Pharo for high stakes. Lieutenant Lorenzi, who found accommodation with the Marchese and has a relationship with the Marchesa, takes part in the card game and ultimately loses high to the Marchese. Casanova is lucky. He wins a considerable sum. Casanova, to whom Marcolina is giving the cold shoulder, has found out that Lorenzi seeks out “the virtuous woman” at night.

The message comes from Venice, from the Council of Ten, that Casanova is only allowed to return on condition that he is employed there as a police spy. Deeply ashamed, the seducer shows his true colors. He rapes the 13-year-old Teresina, the oldest daughter of the Olivo couple, and proposes a deal to the indebted Lorenzi: if Casanova is allowed to spend the next night in bed with Marcolina in Lorenzi's place, the seducer pays the lieutenant's gambling debts. Lorenzi, who is assigned to the field, accepts the deal. Casanova is preparing to leave for Venice and at midnight, unrecognized by Marcolina, gets into her room, has sexual intercourse with her and falls asleep. When Casanova wakes up, Marcolina realizes the deception. She is horrified. Casanova secretly speaks the - for a man like him - devastating judgment: Old man. Outside the winery he meets Lorenzi. The encounter ends in a duel: Casanova stabs the lieutenant to death, leaves the corpse lying there and fled to Venice. In his hometown he starts work as a spy and is delighted: soon he will bring the first free spirit into the lead chambers , which, from his own experience, he can still remember so well after so long.

Schnitzler on his novella

  • Casanova did visit Voltaire in Ferney and the seducer also served as a spy for Venice when he was six years old, but the whole novel was an invention.
  • The expressionists accuse Schnitzler of being awkward. The author replies: “Telling them now means being awkward for you. Expressionist madness! "

Interpretations

  • Schnitzler writes against the expectation of the reader: No adventurer Casanova acts. The tired man wants to go home to Venice. Even a Casanova cannot cope with aging.
  • Sprengel and Scheffel point to autobiographical elements in the novella. For example, when he was 53, Schnitzler wrote in the story about 53-year-old Casanova.
  • Reading Casanova's memoirs ( story of my life ), published in German in 1913, inspired Schnitzler to write the novella.
  • According to Le Rider, morbid prevails in the duel . With her superior spirit, Marcolina is the exception among Schnitzler's female figures. Schnitzler, who wrote the novella towards the end of the First World War, fled from reality to the 18th century.

filming

The novella was filmed in 1992 by Édouard Niermans as Casanova's return with Alain Delon in the title role. The film implies that the eldest daughter is Amalia's Casanova's child.

literature

source
expenditure
  • Arthur Schnitzler: Casanova's drive home. Novella. S. Fischer Verlag Berlin 1918.
First edition as a book.
Secondary literature
  • Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt: The memories of Giacomo Casanova. Transferred in full by Heinrich Conrad . With an introduction by Friedrich Freksa . Casanova's memories in six volumes. Georg Müller Publishing House, Leipzig 1911–1913.
  • Giacomo Casanova. Memoirs . Title of the original "Mémoires"; Transferred from French and edited in a contemporary way. by Nora Urban. Klagenfurt: Neuer Kaiser Verlag GmbH 1089. New edition 2005, ISBN 3-7043-2114-1
  • Hartmut Scheible : Arthur Schnitzler . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg February 1976 (rowohlt's monographs.) ISBN 3-499-50235-6
  • Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler. Stuttgart 1987. (Metzler Collection. 239.) ISBN 3-476-10239-4
  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Verlag edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998. ISBN 3-88377-577-0
  • Gesa Dane: "In the mirror of the air". Illusions and rejuvenation strategies in Arthur Schnitzler's story "Casanovas Heimfahrt" . S. 61–75 in: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Verlag edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998. ISBN 3-88377-577-0
  • Klaus Mönig : Casanova's drive home. Age crisis as a loss of identity . P. 172–189 in: Hee-Ju Kim and Günter Saße (eds.): Interpretations. Arthur Schnitzler. Dramas and stories. Stuttgart 2007. (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. 17352.) ISBN 978-3-15-017532-3
  • Jacques Le Rider : Arthur Schnitzler or The Vienna Belle Époque . Translated from the French by Christian Winterhalter. Passagen Verlag Vienna 2007. ISBN 978-3-85165-767-8

Web links

Remarks

  1. Giacomo Casanova managed to escape from the lead chambers in 1756 after 15 months in prison .

Individual evidence

  1. Source, pp. 489/490
  2. Source, p. 315, 10. Zvo
  3. Source, p. 338, 11. Zvu
  4. Note by the author, see source, p. 378 below
  5. Schnitzler, quoted in Scheible, p. 112, 6. Zvo
  6. Perlmann, p. 161 below
  7. Dane, p. 72, 20. Zvo
  8. ^ Sprengel, p. 242
  9. Scheffel in the afterword of the source, p. 486
  10. Scheffel in the afterword of the source, p. 485 below
  11. Le Rider, p. 127, 22. Zvo
  12. Le Rider, p. 128, 9. Zvu
  13. Le Rider, p. 193, 14. Zvo