lockooks

The Art of
SEDUCTION
By Robert Greene

Classic Power Player Robert Greene has done it again: written a dazzlingly smart, addictively readable, historically annotated, lovingly researched, bracingly unsentimental, eminently practical, refreshingly amoral (yet not entirely unethical), deliciously dramatic and frequently titillating handbook for how to get what you want and whom you want, aggressively yet without force. His first book, The 48 Laws of Power, was a winner in every way, filled with fearless wisdom and fascinating tales of power and its pursuit throughout history.The Art Of Seduction carries on the Greene tradition with panache, remarkable depth and utterly irreverent fun.

As the saying goes, there are two ways to gain power: 1) through making people fear you, and 2) through making them love you. . And The Art Of Seduction focuses on the latter method of power pursuit, which is far nicer than the former, yet still and all, rather naughty. The first thing it does is seduce you into not wanting to put it down.

Greene casts his drama with some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Bill Clinton, and liteature and mythology's consumate lovers--Don Juan, Venus, Jupiter.

I wish Greene had included Queen Esther as one of the Bible's great seductresses. Here was a pious young woman who used her powers of seduction to charm a decadent old king into saving her people from genocide.

But I quibble. The Art Of Seduction is a masterpiece of the self-help genre, which I never thought could have a masterpiece. It contains the wisdom of the ages sifted through a philosophy of romantic pragmatism.

The Art Of Seduction skillfully draws upon all charms and tempting wiles of history and mythology's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Bill Clinton, to advise its reader on matters of the heart

I found myself in agreement with most of Greene major points. For instance, his chapter Pay Attention to Details echos the First Commandment of a Lady's Pleasure from my 10 Commandments of Pleasure: Thou Shalt Pay Attention to the Details of Her Desire. Though my Commandments were published first, I must admit that Greene's chapter fleshes out this vital point of seduction and pleasure with even more detail than mine.

Elegant design by Joost Elffers who also made Greene's Power book a classic that you want to place on a very special shelf by your Bible, Pillow Book and Dictionary.

Can it help you to be a better seducer? Without a doubt. It's wisdom is based on simple truths: Pay Attention to the Details. Send Mixed Signals. Mix Pleasure with Pain.

Throw out all your "How to Pick Up Girls" and "How to Make a Man Fall in Love with You" books (except mine, of course). This is the book that you need if you really want to know about the arts of lust, love and power, which are all bound up in the much-maligned art of seduction.