The Lost Diary of Don Juan

An Account of the True Arts of Passion and the Perilous Adventure of Love

Douglas Carlton Abrams

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2007
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• eBook ISBN:
  9781416556541
• Index: Literature

It was a time of discovery and decadence, when life became a gamble and the gold that poured endlessly into the port of Sevilla devalued money, marriage, and love itself. In the midst of these treacherous times, Juan Tenorio is born and then abandoned in the barn of a convent. Raised secretly by the nuns, he learns to love and worship all women and wants nothing more than to be a priest, until he falls in love with one of the sisters. When their affair is discovered, Juan leaves the Church forever. He is soon recruited to be a spy by the powerful Marquis de la Mota, who teaches him to become the world's greatest libertine and seducer of women. But when he crosses swords with the most powerful man in the Empire, Don Juan must escape the murderous fury of the Inquisitor who battles all forms of debauchery, deviance, and heresy.

It is after knowing countless women that he is convinced by the Marquis to keep a diary, and it is here within its pages that Don Juan reveals his greatest adventures and the Arts of Passion he mastered. But what finally compels him to confess everything and risk losing his life, livelihood, and honor is the most perilous adventure of all -- the irresistible fall into the madness of love with the only woman who could ever make him forget all others.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Editor’s Note
• Maps
• Rumors and Lies
• A Flicker of Passion
• The Desire of a Woman
• No One Will Ever Know
• Not Every Man with a Mask Is a Burglar
• The Love of His Angels
• A Vision of God
• This I Cannot Do at Any Price
• Like Salt into the Land
• A Man Is Not Just What He Is Born
• The Education of a Libertine
• Gold in the Veins of Sevilla
• The Slave Market
• Taberna del Pirata
• Secrets Never Stay Buried
• A Thousand Nights with a Stranger
• Corpus Christi
• The Bullfight
• Sins of the Flesh
• The Deadliest Sin
• Alma’s Intuition
• The Masquerade Party
• Duchess Cristina’s Invitation
• The Truth
• Knowledge That Could Lead to Our Ruin
• Alma’s Return
• A New World
• A Moth to a Flame
• A Tour of Heaven
• A Child of Deception and Cruelty
• The Wager of Love
• The Secret of Marriage
• Safe Passage
• Alma’s Temptation
• In the Name of the Holy Inquisition
• Confession at the Alcázar
• Dueling on the Rooftops of Sevilla
• Doña Ana’s Bedchamber
• A Farewell
• The Last Night: A Final Entry
• Glossary and Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Author’s Note
• About the Author