I recently read a little bit about Giacomo Casanova, it seems he lived an almost unbelievably interesting life. Allegedly he broke out of the Inquisition's imprisonment in the Venetian Doge's palace, met Voltaire, Rousseau, Frederic the Great, Catherine the Great, two popes, Mozart and Benjamin Franklin. His adventures seem like they're taken out of the stories about Baron Munchhausen. Can anyone recommend me a good, critical biography?
While I must admit that this isn't exactly my field of expertise, as a Casanova aficionado myself I'd suggest you to start by reading his very own memoirs first - the aptly-named Histoire de ma vie that is. There are currently two main editions, the most modern and reliable of which are a three-volume critical edition published by Laffont and another one by Gallimard; both are based on the original manuscript, now stored at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
I'd recommend the former which includes a wealth of useful notes/critical commentary as well as a handy appendix containing a table of the various currencies of the time, a section devoted to the card games Casanova used to play, a list of the book's countless characters, etc., etc., etc. The Gallimard edition is on the other hand a pricey reproduction of the manuscript as it is, with all its defects and without explanatory notes of any kind what-so-ever.
Should you ever want to peruse the handwritten original, you can find it on Gallica.
EDIT: should've warned you that both editions are in French! I don't know of any reputable English translation.
EDIT/2: do avoid the older editons as they're all based either on the relatively faithful - if abridged - 1960 Brockhaus-Plon text (at best) or some 19th-century bowdlerisation. You probably don't want any of these.
EDIT/3: as far as the Laffont edition is concerned do not confuse the one of 2013 with that of 1993, which is a partial revision of the Brockhaus-Plon. It's a woefully incomplete mess with plenty of misprints and assorted shenanigans!