On a journey to London, Casanova meets an Englishman so boneheaded he might almost be Lorenzo's double, and reunites with Schalon, whose pomposity has only grown since his release. Finding that his charms do not work on English ladies, he advertises for a female tenant with the intent of seducing her, but the plan turns sour when he finds himself genuinely falling in love. Obsessed with and repulsed by sex, Casanova wonders whether he is any freer than he was in prison.
—Peter Brynmor Roberts