Casanovas Heimfahrt

Casanovas Heimfahrt, a Novelle by A. Schnitzler, which was published in 1918. In the collected works it was included with two earlier stories ( Frau Beate und ihr Sohn and Doktor Gräsler, Badearzt) in the cycle Die Alternden (1924). The main action of the story concentrates on the forty-eight hours preceding the return of Casanova de Seingalt to his native Venice which he had left some twenty years previously in a daring escape from prison, and which is now prepared to receive him back on condition that he serves the city as a spy in its campaign against moral corruption. Invited to stay with Olivo on a country estate near Mantua, which Casanova's generosity has enabled him to acquire upon his marriage to Amalia, a former mistress, Casanova sees in their niece Marcolina, a girl whose beauty and outstanding intellect present an unrivalled challenge to him: this is heightened by his bitter resentment of approaching old age and by the loss of sexual attraction and vitality. He arranges a deal with Lorenzi, an unprincipled young officer, who is the secret lover of Marcolina and is also in desperate financial straits, enabling him to visit her at night in Lorenzi's guise. When Casanova leaves the house at dawn, Lorenzi confronts him and forces a duel, in which Casanova kills the younger man, whom he had recognized at first sight as an image of his own lost youth. Schnitzler uses this ‘Doppelgänger’ motif with bitter irony, for the apparent victory completes the defeat which Casanova has already experienced after Marcolina's disgust at the discovery of his identity. His ensuing flight to ignominious office in Venice adds to his humiliation. Although Schnitzler alludes to a few historical facts, the events of the story are freely invented.