Books: Rake's Progress

THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA, VOL. II: PARIS AND PRISON (714 pp.)—Translated by Arthur Machen—Putnam ($5).

"In any civilised man or woman who cannot win some enjoyment from this book," wrote Havelock Ellis about Casanova's Memoirs, "there must be something unwholesome and abnormal—something corrupt at the core." Writing in the Victorian era, Scientist Ellis (Psychology of Sex) idolized Casanova as a free spirit, a man who had the courage to live life fully, and as a shining example of "adjustment"—for Casanova adapted himself so easily to his own desires. Yet there may be more...