DAVE THOMPSON is a retired teacher, a history writer and blogger with a degree and masters in History. He has long been intrigued by the controversial life of the adventurer and man of letters Giacomo Casanova and the continuing difficulty successive generations of scholars have found in getting to grips with him. Everyone who encounters him, specialist and non-specialist, is faced with the challenge of historical and moral complexity. The hope is that this two-volume project will provide not so much clear-cut answers to that challenge but a helpful framework within which to consider it.