Jean-Claude Hauc
Jean-Claude Hauc lives and works in Montpellier. From 1976 to 1991, he co-edited the journal Textuerre and participated in numerous readings and events of the literary avant-garde. He has published around twenty novels and short stories with various publishers, as well as works on the adventurers and libertines of the Enlightenment (Sade, Casanova, etc.). He is a member of the editorial staff of Lettres françaises.
While Casanova made a point of concealing the names of his various mistresses in his Memoirs, it is certainly not an insult to them today to seek to bring them out of anonymity. For a long time now, Casanova scholars have managed to unravel the various stratagems devised by the gallant to protect the reputations of the women he loved. For some, however, the mystery surrounding them has proven more difficult to unravel. Take, for example, the woman from Montpellier whom Casanova met in London in 1763; who became his mistress in Dresden three years later; and whom he finally met again in Montpellier in 1769. "One of the most beautiful women in all of France," he wrote in his book. Strangely, it took until our time for this beauty to finally regain her identity. The search for her identity is the subject of this short book. Publication date: February 1, 2025 Order Press release
Sometimes, a particularly captivating, almost instinctual, entanglement develops between a teacher and one of their students, bringing to both a kind of well-being that can border on rapture. This short novel sets out to depict one of these delicate complicities, requiring secrecy and absolute discretion lest it be plunged into the mire continuously secreted by the nauseating era in which we live. The author also strives to convey the malevolence of certain mothers, dedicated to sacrificing the happiness of their tender offspring, as if they were glorifying their vocation as "black widows," creatures quick to inflict death. Publication date: May 1, 2024. Order now. Press release.
Casanova was born practically at the same time as Freemasonry. Initiated in Lyon in 1750, he would accompany the development of this new hierarchy, which had arrived from England, until the end of the 18th century. In his *History of My Life*, he recounts the years during which he received his training, but also how he later profited from it during his many travels throughout Europe. He also recalls his encounters with several aristocrats belonging to the order: Cardinal de Bernis, Count de Lamberg, and Prince de Ligne; as well as his run-ins with certain adventurers who were themselves initiates, such as Saint-Germain and Cagliostro. At the end of his life, living in seclusion in Dux, deep in Bohemia, in the castle of another Freemason, Count Waldstein, he published at his own expense *Icosameron*, an enormous novel whose plot was drawn from the mysteries of this secret society. Publication date: January 1, 2023 Order now
The fifteen stories gathered here may well evoke in some readers a nostalgia for a time before the moral hypocrisy and conformism that have now invaded our good old Europe. A time when young girls didn't feel violated every time an adult complimented them on their charm or politely invited them for a drink. Others, however, will be shocked by the weakness of this teacher, so quick to be lured away from his students and into the very place where he is supposed to impart all or part of his knowledge. To take too keen an interest in one of his pupils—what an unforgivable sin! It seems impossible that an honest young woman could desire this kind of relationship. Only a monster could even think of forcing her into such base depravities. The author of this little book, for his part, carefully avoids specifying his intentions, preferring to leave his reader free to choose between sincere confession, blatant provocation, and well-tempered fiction. Covering his tracks seems to be the only way he could think of to avoid the zealous representatives of the new vice squad. Publication date: November 2, 2021 Order now
