Azure Trance
First Post
While I was stuck at Doshis Diagnostics for a few hours today, I chanced upon last weeks issue of The New Yorker. One of the articles was almost novel-like based on the authors uncovering of notes and letters dating from over three centuries ago concerning a money, love, affairs, and Casanova himself.
I can't remember the names now, but I assure you they were all appropriately ethnic sounding
(I kept getting the man and womans name mixed up since his name was Andrea). We'll call the main characters the wealthy Italian man Andrea and the beautiful (half-English; +1 ECL) Italian woman Gi (as I cannot recall the rest of her name).
Gi's mother was a poor English woman who was fortunate enough to marry up into a moderately affluent Italian family. Gi herself was of exceptional beauty and caught the eye of Andrea M, who was of the family M that helped create Venice in 700 AD. They soon fell madly in love with each other. However M's family abhorred of the very idea of them getting married - yes, affairs are common, as long as it stays in the upper class.
It's also interesting to note that at this time Venice was a city of masks. From October to Lent everyone could wear masks - from the Doge (highest position in the city) to the woman selling fruits. There were two types of masks: the band which covered your eyes, and the more secretive head-to-shoulders mask.
As such they continued seeing each other in secret. Andrea wrote many letters to her even though Gi was paranoid of being caught. They developed a sign language to communicate. Touch your hair if you want to meet at the plaza. Letters were written in code.
Note: I don't remember that well and so the next sentence is a little fuzzy on details: A plan was erected to try to marry off Gi to someone else, but failed. As a result, Andrea M persuaded his father to the idea of marrying Gi. He capitulated and soon after so did his mother. Upon hearing the absence of opposition from M, Gi's family also agreed to a marriage.
All was well.
Until she met a Frenchman at a ball.
Andrea was told that Gi "kissed him, and not light on the lips as the French do." Andrea wrote a scathing letter to Gi which said that she was not only going to receive his love but his entire familys love as well as their influence, which her mother could not afford to lose. She was Catholic as well, so it's not as if travelling back to London would be a wise choice either. Shortly afterwards, Gi had a moment of weakness. She slept with the Frenchman and got pregnant.
Hating herself and realizing they couldn't be married, she and her mother packed and headed towards Paris. There was currently a war going on - France, Austria, Bavaria and Russia against Hanover, Prussia, and England. It was the second year of the 7 year war. France lost many men and their colonies in the New World was taking a beating, but Paris still had packed opera houses full of socialities and nightly extravagent galas.
They were very careful of joining the French upper class at first being British. Eventually she wrote to Andrea "Mother and I went two rounds through the park. We are the prettiest ladies here. Paris has many average looking women, and an infinite number of ugly ones." While there she caught the eye of Casanova, the man who was legendary for his seduction of women. Casanova was in France following a famous escape after 15 months in an Italian jail for his pronounced atheism and occasional dabble in the occult. He then became a French agent and among other things, set up a deal for the French worth 20 million francs and started a national lottery, of which a portion of the proceeds was given to him.
Gi was desperate for help though - she was 5 months pregnant and it was getting harder to conceal it. Casanova took her to a midwife by the name of DeMay who offered a concotion that would abort the baby. Abortion at that time was a capital offense of which the penalty was death. The cost was exorbiant though (several times the monthly rent for Casanovas estate) and as Gi grew visibly nervous Casanova took her home (and yet again attempts to seduce her).
Gi rebuked his advances though, for her introduction into Parisian society made wide ripples, one of whom was a General (Let's call him P, for he has a long French name). General P absolutely adored Gi. He constantly seeked her attention and sent many gifts. Gen. P was also fabulously rich; when he asked for her hand in marriage only a few months later he would offer Gi 40,000 Francs, or the equivalent of 10,000 silver ducats a year - twice as much as the entire M family annual income combined. General P tries expediates the marriage as soon as possible by finalizing her immigration documents.
Gen. P's family and two former mistresses were unhappy with the 'upstart' though. Two days after asking for her hand in marriage a well known crook stopped by his estate and tells the General that Gi has been seeing Casanova, is purported to be pregnant with another mans child, and tried to abort it. He was dismissed, but the next day DeMay herself shows and tells the same story.
To recap: Gi is hounded by a legendery seducer, trying to win the money and influence of a powerful general, and still considers her first love at the very least as a dear friend, if not still a lover. She is also secretly pregnant with a fourth mans child which would destroy any marriage proposal.
I'm a little tired of typing this all out. Part II coming soon ...
I can't remember the names now, but I assure you they were all appropriately ethnic sounding
(I kept getting the man and womans name mixed up since his name was Andrea). We'll call the main characters the wealthy Italian man Andrea and the beautiful (half-English; +1 ECL) Italian woman Gi (as I cannot recall the rest of her name).Gi's mother was a poor English woman who was fortunate enough to marry up into a moderately affluent Italian family. Gi herself was of exceptional beauty and caught the eye of Andrea M, who was of the family M that helped create Venice in 700 AD. They soon fell madly in love with each other. However M's family abhorred of the very idea of them getting married - yes, affairs are common, as long as it stays in the upper class.
It's also interesting to note that at this time Venice was a city of masks. From October to Lent everyone could wear masks - from the Doge (highest position in the city) to the woman selling fruits. There were two types of masks: the band which covered your eyes, and the more secretive head-to-shoulders mask.
As such they continued seeing each other in secret. Andrea wrote many letters to her even though Gi was paranoid of being caught. They developed a sign language to communicate. Touch your hair if you want to meet at the plaza. Letters were written in code.
Note: I don't remember that well and so the next sentence is a little fuzzy on details: A plan was erected to try to marry off Gi to someone else, but failed. As a result, Andrea M persuaded his father to the idea of marrying Gi. He capitulated and soon after so did his mother. Upon hearing the absence of opposition from M, Gi's family also agreed to a marriage.
All was well.
Until she met a Frenchman at a ball.
Andrea was told that Gi "kissed him, and not light on the lips as the French do." Andrea wrote a scathing letter to Gi which said that she was not only going to receive his love but his entire familys love as well as their influence, which her mother could not afford to lose. She was Catholic as well, so it's not as if travelling back to London would be a wise choice either. Shortly afterwards, Gi had a moment of weakness. She slept with the Frenchman and got pregnant.
Hating herself and realizing they couldn't be married, she and her mother packed and headed towards Paris. There was currently a war going on - France, Austria, Bavaria and Russia against Hanover, Prussia, and England. It was the second year of the 7 year war. France lost many men and their colonies in the New World was taking a beating, but Paris still had packed opera houses full of socialities and nightly extravagent galas.
They were very careful of joining the French upper class at first being British. Eventually she wrote to Andrea "Mother and I went two rounds through the park. We are the prettiest ladies here. Paris has many average looking women, and an infinite number of ugly ones." While there she caught the eye of Casanova, the man who was legendary for his seduction of women. Casanova was in France following a famous escape after 15 months in an Italian jail for his pronounced atheism and occasional dabble in the occult. He then became a French agent and among other things, set up a deal for the French worth 20 million francs and started a national lottery, of which a portion of the proceeds was given to him.
Gi was desperate for help though - she was 5 months pregnant and it was getting harder to conceal it. Casanova took her to a midwife by the name of DeMay who offered a concotion that would abort the baby. Abortion at that time was a capital offense of which the penalty was death. The cost was exorbiant though (several times the monthly rent for Casanovas estate) and as Gi grew visibly nervous Casanova took her home (and yet again attempts to seduce her).
Gi rebuked his advances though, for her introduction into Parisian society made wide ripples, one of whom was a General (Let's call him P, for he has a long French name). General P absolutely adored Gi. He constantly seeked her attention and sent many gifts. Gen. P was also fabulously rich; when he asked for her hand in marriage only a few months later he would offer Gi 40,000 Francs, or the equivalent of 10,000 silver ducats a year - twice as much as the entire M family annual income combined. General P tries expediates the marriage as soon as possible by finalizing her immigration documents.
Gen. P's family and two former mistresses were unhappy with the 'upstart' though. Two days after asking for her hand in marriage a well known crook stopped by his estate and tells the General that Gi has been seeing Casanova, is purported to be pregnant with another mans child, and tried to abort it. He was dismissed, but the next day DeMay herself shows and tells the same story.
To recap: Gi is hounded by a legendery seducer, trying to win the money and influence of a powerful general, and still considers her first love at the very least as a dear friend, if not still a lover. She is also secretly pregnant with a fourth mans child which would destroy any marriage proposal.
I'm a little tired of typing this all out. Part II coming soon ...
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I'm a bit fuzzy on what happened afterwards; there wasn't any discussion of the meeting I know, but cannot remember if they still kept in touch afterwards, or not, or if it was mentioned at all. Andrea did settle down though; while Gi was in Paris, he married a pretty peasant girl to help stabilize his life and to focus on his political career.
