Abstract: From his escape from the Piombi in Venice to his amorous exploits, from his urban wanderings to his esoteric hoaxes, the greatest scenes of Casanova’s memoirs are virtually all set under cover of darkness. This article aims to consider night as yet another feminine figure haunting the recollections of Story of my Life, a true maternal entity. This chapter explores the extent to which Casanova’s representation of night as a benevolent power echoes a crucial evolution in the history of ideas affecting the experience of and discourse on the nocturnal phenomenon in the long eighteenth-century.
