“I begin by declaring to my reader that, by everything good or bad that I have done throughout my life, I am sure that I have earned merit or incurred guilt, and that hence I must consider myself a free agent. … Despite an excellent moral foundation, the inevitable fruit of the divine principles which were rooted in my heart, I was all my life the victim of my senses; I have delighted in going astray and I have constantly lived in error, with no other consolation than that of knowing I have erred. … My follies are the follies of youth. You will see that I laugh at them, and if you are kind you will laugh at them with me.”

Setelah menanti sekitar 10 hari-an, akhirnya datang juga buku pesanan gue: History of My Life. Sebuah autobiografi seorang tokoh bernama Giacomo Casanova, atau biasa kita kenal sebagai “Casanova”.

Gue belum bisa bercerita banyak tentang isi buku, maupun Casanova-nya sendiri. Yang jelas, dari prakata yang ditulis olehnya sudah timbul kekaguman dan ketidaksukaan gue terhadap sang penulis, dan juga beberapa prinsip yang langsung gue setujui.

Buku ini merupakan ringkasan dari buku aslinya yang terdiri dari 12 volume. Itu pun sebetulnya masih akan ditulis lagi, karena volume ke-12 berakhir di tahun 1792, sedangkan Casanova masih hidup hingga 1798. Penulisan terhenti karena Casanova keburu meninggal.

Jadi berbekal sebilah kamus elektronik (AlfaLink EI-839) gue mulailah membaca buku ini.

“I expect the friendship, the esteem, and the gratitude of my readers. Their gratitude, if reading my memoirs will have given instruction and pleasure. Their esteem if, doing me justice, they will have found that I have more virtues than faults; and their friendship as soon as they come to find me deserving of it by the frankness and good faith with which I submit myself to their judgment without in any way disguising what I am.”