Casanova and Company: Who the famous lovers really were, and how they conquered women

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

These images are already several hundred years old, and their main secret is that despite the obvious negative coloring, they are not so much frightening as attractive. Not all of these men actually existed. Some are a figment of the author's imagination and were created only for the edification of young girls. But, like any forbidden fruit, that is why young girls have been going crazy over them for several hundred years, and the brightest and most talented actors consider it an honor to embody the adventures of famous conquerors on stage or in the cinema.

Don Juan

Of the great trinity of hero-lovers, this character is the most ancient. History dates us back to the XIV century, when the whole of Seville shuddered from the love affairs of the Castilian king Pedro I and his faithful assistant don Juan Tenorio. It is this person who is considered one of the prototypes of the great seducer, who much later became one of the most famous literary characters. Don Juan's last crime was the story of don Gonzalo de Ulloa's daughter. This worthy citizen was the commander of the military order of Calatrava. The libertine king, along with his assistant, kidnapped his daughter, and the commander himself was killed. Since justice was inactive, the loyal knights decided to avenge themselves for the life of their superior and his desecrated honor.

On behalf of a young and beautiful noblewoman, don Juan was given an appointment late at night in the church where the commander was buried. Further, the avengers killed the would-be lover and spread the rumor that the statue of the commander had thrown him into hell. It is not known whether they managed to avoid punishment at the same time, but the story itself gradually turned into a folk legend. Later, another loving nobleman, don Miguel de Manara, was woven into the image of don Juan, who allegedly sold his soul to the devil, but then repented and ended his days in the monastery. Gradually, the image of the villain-seducer began to acquire more human and attractive features.

Don Juan found his first literary incarnation around 1630, when the Spanish playwright and theologian Tirso de Molina wrote the instructive play The Seville Libertine and the Stone Guest. The plot is based on the true story of Juan Tenorio. Later, many famous poets and writers turned to this topic: Moliere, Hoffman, Byron, Merimee, Alexei Tolstoy, and, of course, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Today Don Juan is considered one of the "eternal images" in art, and his name has become a household name for a rake and a libertine.

Lovelace

Sir Robert Lovelace (it is more correct to say Lovelace) never really existed. This is a fictional character, the protagonist of the epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson "Clarissa". In 1748, the entire reading world was conquered by the misadventures of the unfortunate virtuous Clarissa, who was brazenly deceived and dishonored by a dissolute handsome aristocrat. This novel in letters has become so popular that the author's name seems to have become a household name in almost the same way as the surname of its protagonist:

By the way, the famous founder of "sensitive" literature himself was quite amazed at how his evil brainchild - the lecher Lovelace, unexpectedly attracted the young ladies. He lamented that he had much more fans than the tender and unhappy Clarissa. Probably, then the world first encountered this phenomenon - in fact, the "bad guys" are much more attractive than their virtuous victims. Today Lovelace is called "one of the greatest characters in English literature":

(N. Karamzin)

Casanova

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, Chevalier de Sengaltes, was born in Venice in 1725. This great seducer can be considered completely "a product of his era", because at that time the Republic of Venice was considered the European "capital of pleasure". Carnivals, gambling houses and beautiful courtesans - all this has shaped the character of the easy and quickly addicted Giacomo. Of course, it cannot be denied that of all the Venetians who were born at the same time as him, he was probably the "first student" in terms of entertainment, and his whole life as a result turned into one adventurous fascinating novel. In this unlucky, but very exciting fate, there was everything: gambling with cards, escape from his hometown, wandering around many countries, prison and escape from it through a hole in the roof, money fraud, duels, and, of course, many women.

At the same time, during his long life, this man, talented in his own way in many areas, managed to try on many images and professions. Over the years, he began and gave up a career as a clergyman, military man, musician, playwright, doctor, freemason, diplomat and spy, occultist and alchemist. However, it was women who seemed to be the main passion of his life. His "list of victories" contains more than 120 women, although for our time, perhaps, this is no longer a record. Casanova later wrote about himself as follows:

And here is one of the main secrets of seduction, which the great lover shared with descendants:

Interestingly, this heartthrob gained worldwide fame thanks to his own memoirs. Closer to 50, fed up with life and feeling the approach of old age, Casanova became the caretaker of the library of Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein in Bohemia. Here, bored and languishing, he spent the last years of his stormy life. However, having finally received time to engage in useful work and, probably, no longer having the strength for other, more interesting occupations, this man enriched literature and history with his extensive memoirs. In 1789 he began this work as a to. This very frank chronicle of his adventures was published in full only in 1960 and has a volume of about ten volumes. Today historians are trying to rethink this image as an incredibly multifaceted person, not reducing his victory only to a love front.