Casanovas Heimfahrt

by Arthur Schnitzler

"Casanovas Heimfahrt" by Arthur Schnitzler is a novella published in 1918. The aging Casanova, now fifty-three and impoverished, awaits permission to return home to Venice after twenty-five years of exile. While staying with friends, he becomes obsessed with seducing the young, intellectually formidable Marcolina. When she rejects him, Casanova's desperation leads him down a dark path of manipulation and betrayal. The story chronicles his moral decay as he confronts the unbearable reality of aging and makes devastating choices that transform the legendary seducer into something far more sinister.