Andrea di Robilant tells the true story of his 18th-century Venetian ancestor Andrea Memmo, a young nobleman who had a passionate love affair with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, both of whom were friends of Casanova. Memmo was forbidden to marry the illegitimate girl, but they carried on in secret, as revealed in a trove of recently unearthed love letters. "This thoroughly fascinating chronicle of historical fact has all the hallmarks of a Henry James novel," proclaimed the Washington Post Book World. "By the end ... a story that starts off sounding like a fairy tale has dissected a society from top to bottom, describing everything from 18th-century abortion procedures to the Venetian penchant for decorative masks."