X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Histoire de ma vie


Ben Sonnenberg

Sonnenberg started communicating in epigrams at age seven and started writing his memoirs at age 13, inspired by Giacomo Casanova's Histoire de ma vie.

Histoire de ma vie

The first French edition is a German to French translation from the French to German Schütz translation, which results in a very approximate and imperfect text.

The first complete and authentic edition of the text was published between 1960 and 1962 (minus the four lost chapters, replaced by their Laforgue version, with the annotations by Schütz).

In response to the piracy Brockhaus brought out a second edition in French, edited by Jean Laforgue (1782–1852) which was very unreliable as Laforgue altered Casanova's religious and political views as well as censoring sexual references.

This edition is done with the original manuscript, but still heavily censored and "arranged" by Jean Laforgue.

This first edition is a censored German translation for Brockhaus (the first half was translated by Wilhelm von Schütz, the remaining parts by an unknown translator).

Jean Laforgue

Jean Laforgue (11 January 1782, Marciac – 6 November 1852, Dresden) was a French scholar living in Dresden, mainly known for having edited and censored the first edition (known as Édition Laforgue) of Giacomo Casanovas memoirs, Histoire de ma vie.



see also