Marginalia on Casanova (Saint Orpheus’s Breviary, Book 1)

Thursday night I finished reading Marginalia on Casanova, which is Book 1 of Miklós Szentkuthy’s Saint Orpheus’s Breviary series. In this book and through the character of St. Orpheus, Szentkuthy uses the exegetical techniques of Karl Barth’s magnum opus Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans as the basic structure to provide commentary on the Memoirs of Casanova as the starting point for synthesizing 2,000 years of European culture, religion, philosophy, art, etc. The aim of the entire series is to find the human ideal and an acceptable lifestyle that a thinking mind in search of happiness can hope for after the broadest possible circle of historical, cultural, and religious experiences.

Given this expansive aim it should be no surprise that the subject matters of Marginalia are extensive, profound, and meandering. A summation of its contents would be both impossible and pointless.

I will note, however, one passage in the book in which Szentkuthy correctly states that the ultimate endgame of the Christian hope for the future is not a disembodied existence in heaven but resurrection of the physical body for an existence on a redeemed earth. It’s nice to see someone get this right.