PENGUIN BOOKS

T H E A R T O F S E D U C T I O N

Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, has a

degree in classical literature. He lives in Los Angeles.

Visit his Web site: www.seductionbook.com

Joost Elffers is the producer of Viking Studio's best-

selling The Secret Language of Birthdays, The Secret

Language of Relationships, as well as Play with Your Food.

He lives in New York City.

the art of eduction

Robert Greene

A Joost Elffers Book

PENGUIN BOOKS

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Greene Robert.

The art of seduction / Robert Greene.

p. cm.

"A Joost Elffers book."

ISBN 0-670-89192-4 (hc.)

ISBN 0 14 20.0119 8 (pbk.)

1. Sexual excitement. 2. Sex instruction. 3. Seduction. I.Title.

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Falling in Love by Francesco Alberoni, translated by Lawrence Venuti. Reprinted by permission of

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Seduction by Jean Baudrillard, translated by Brian Singer. St. Martin's Press, 1990. Copyright © New

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Portrait of a Seductress: The World of Natalie Barney by Jean Chalon, translated by Carol Barko, Crown

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Lenin: The Man Behind the Mask by Ronald W. Clark, Faber & Faber Ltd., 1988. Reprinted with

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Edna H. Hong. Copyright © 1987 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission of

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Sirens: Symbols of Seduction by Meri Lao, translated by John Oliphant of Rossie, Park Street Press,

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Lives of the Courtesans by Lynne Lawner, Rizzoli, 1987. Reprinted with permission of the author. The Theatre of Don Juan: A Collection of Plays and Views, 1630-1963 edited with a commentary by

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To the memory of my father

Acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank Anna Biller for her countless contributions to

this book: the research, the many discussions, her invaluable help with the

text itself, and, last but not least, her knowledge of the art of seduction, of

which I have been the happy victim on numerous occasions.

I must thank my mother, Laurette, for supporting me so steadfastly

throughout this project and for being my most devoted fan.

I would like to thank Catherine Léouzon, who some years ago intro-

duced me to Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the world of Valmont.

I would like to thank David Frankel, for his deft editing and for his

much-appreciated advice; Molly Stern at Viking Penguin, for overseeing

the project and helping to shape it; Radha Pancham, for keeping it all orga-

nized and being so patient; and Brett Kelly, for moving things along.

With heavy heart I would like to pay tribute to my cat Boris, who for

thirteen years watched over me as I wrote and whose presence is sorely

missed. His successor, Brutus, has proven to be a worthy muse.

Finally, I would like to honor my father. Words cannot express how

much I miss him and how much he has inspired my work.

iX

Contents

Acknowlegments • ix

Preface • xix

Part One

The Seductive Character page 1

The Siren page 5

A man is often secretly oppressed by the role he has to play—by always having to be responsi-ble, in control, and rational. The Siren is the ultimate male fantasy figure because she offers a total release from the limitations of his life. In her presence, which is always heightened and sexually charged, the male feels transported to a realm of pure pleasure. In a world where women are often too timid to project such an image, learn to take control of the male libido by embodying his fantasy.

The Rake page 17

A woman never quite feels desired and appreciated enough. She wants attention, but a man is too often distracted and unresponsive. The Rake is a great female fantasy-figure—when he de-sires a woman, brief though that moment may be, he will go to the ends of the earth for her. He may be disloyal, dishonest, and amoral, but that only adds to his appeal. Stir a woman's repressed longings by adapting the Rake's mix of danger and pleasure.

The Ideal Lover page 29

Most people have dreams in their youth that get shattered or worn down with age. They find themselves disappointed by people, events, reality, which cannot match their youthful ideals. Ideal Lovers thrive on people's broken dreams, which become lifelong fantasies. You long for ro-mance? Adventure? Lofty spiritual communion? The Ideal Lover reflects your fantasy. He or she is an artist in creating the illusion you require. In a world of disenchantment and baseness, there is limitless seductive power in following the path of the Ideal Lover.

xi

xii • Contents

The Dandy page 41

Most of us feel trapped within the limited roles that the world expects us to play. We are in-stantly attracted to those who are more fluid than we are—those who create their own persona. Dandies excite us because they cannot be categorized, and hint at a freedom we want for our-selves. They play with masculinity and femininity; they fashion their own physical image, which is always startling. Use the power of the Dandy to create an ambiguous, alluring pres-ence that stirs repressed desires.

T h e Natural page 53

Childhood is the golden paradise we are always consciously or unconsciously trying to re-create. The Natural embodies the longed-for qualities of childhood—spontaneity, sincerity, unpre-tentiousness. In the presence of Naturals, we feel at ease, caught up in their playful spirit, transported back to that golden age. Adopt the pose of the Natural to neutralize people's defensivencss and infect them with helpless delight.

The Coquette page 67

The ability to delay satisfaction is the ultimate art of seduction—while waiting, the victim is held in thrall. Coquettes are the grand masters of the game, orchestrating a back-and-forth movement between hope and frustration. They bait with the promise of reward—the hope of physical pleasure, happiness, fame by association, power—all of which, however, proves elu-sive; yet this only makes their targets pursue them the more. Imitate the alternating heat and coolness of the Coquette and you will keep the seduced at your heels.

The Charmer page 79

Charm is seduction without sex. Charmers are consummate manipulators, masking their clev-erness by creating a mood of pleasure and comfort. Their method is simple: They deflect atten-tion from themselves and focus it on their target. They understand your spirit, feel your pain, adapt to your moods. In the presence of a Charmer you feel better about yourself. Learn to cast the Charmer's spell by aiming at people's primary weaknesses: vanity and self-esteem.

The Charismatic page 95

Charisma is a presence that excites us. It comes from an inner quality—self-confidence, sexual energy, sense of purpose, contentment—that most people lack and want. This quality radiates outward, permeating the gestures of Charismatics, making them seem extraordinary and supe-rior. They learn to heighten their charisma with a piercing gaze, fiery oratory, an air of mys-tery. Create the charismatic illusion by radiating intensity while remaining detached.

The Star page 119

Daily life is harsh, and most of us constantly seek escape from it in fantasies and dreams. Stars feed on this weakness; standing out from others through a distinctive and appealing style, they make us want to watch them. At the same time, they are vague and ethereal, keeping their distance, and letting us imagine more than is there. Their dreamlike quality works on our un-conscious. Learn to become an object of fascination by projecting the glittering but elusive pres-ence of the Star.

Contents • xiii

The Anti-Seducer page 131

Seducers draw you in by the focused, individualized attention they pay to you. Anti-seducers are the opposite: insecure, self-absorbed, and unable to grasp the psychology of another person, they literally repel Anti-Seducers have no self-awareness, and never realize when they are

pestering, imposing, talking too much. Root out anti-seductive qualities in yourself and recog-nize them in others—there is no pleasure or profit in dealing with the Anti-Seducer.

The Seducer's Victims—The Eighteen Types page 147

Part Two

The Seductive Process page 161

Phase One: Separation—Stirring Interest and Desire

1 Choose the Right Victim page 167

Everything depends on the target of your seduction. Study your prey thoroughly, and choose only those who will prove susceptible to your charms. The right victims are those for whom you can fill a void, who see in you something exotic. They are often isolated or unhappy, or can easily be made so—for the completely contented person is almost impossible to seduce. The perfect victim has some quality that inspires strong emotions in you, making your seductive maneuvers seem more natural and dynamic. The perfect victim allows for the perfect chase.

2 Create a False Sense of Security—Approach Indirectly page 177

If you are too direct early on, you risk stirring up a resistance that will never be lowered. At first there must be nothing of the seducer in your manner. The seduction should begin at an angle, indirectly, so that the target only gradually becomes aware of you. Haunt the periphery of your target's life—approach through a third party, or seem to cultivate a relatively neutral re-lationship, moving gradually from friend to lover. Lull the target into feeling secure, then strike.

3 Send Mixed Signals page 185

Once people are aware of your presence, and perhaps vaguely intrigued, you need to stir their interest before it settles on someone else. Most of us are much too obvious—instead, be hard to figure out. Send mixed signals: both tough and tender, both spiritual and earthly, both inno-cent and cunning. A mix of qualities suggests depth, which fascinates even as it confuses. An elusive, enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contradictory within you.

4 Appear to Be an Object of Desire—Create Triangles page 195

Few are drawn to the person whom others avoid or neglect; people gather around those who have already attracted interest. To draw your victims closer and make them hungry to possess you, you must create an aura of desirability—of being wanted and courted by many. It will become a point of vanity for them to be the preferred object of your attention, to win you away

from a crowd of admirers. Build a reputation that precedes you: If many have succumbed to

your charms, there must be a reason.

xiv • Contents

5 Create a Need—Stir Anxiety and Discontent page 203

A perfectly satisfied person cannot be seduced. Tension and disharmony must be instilled in your targets minds. Stir within them feelings of discontent, an unhappiness with their circum-stances and with themselves. The feelings of inadequacy that you create will give you space to insinuate yourself, to make them see you as the answer to their problems. Pain and anxiety are the proper precursors to pleasure. Learn to manufacture the need that you can fill.

6 Master the Art of Insinuation page 211

Making your targets feel dissatisfied and in need of your attention is essential, but if you are too obvious, they will see through you and grow defensive. There is no known defense, how-ever, against insinuation—the art of planting ideas in people's minds by dropping elusive hints that take root days later, even appearing to them as their own idea. Create a sublanguage— bold statements followed by retraction and apology, ambiguous comments, banal talk combined with alluring glances—that enters the target's unconscious to convey your real meaning. Make everything suggestive.

7 Enter Their Spirit page 219

Most people are locked in their own worlds, making them stubborn and hard to persuade. The way to lure them out of their shell and set up your seduction is to enter their spirit. Play by their rules, enjoy what they enjoy, adapt yourself to their moods. In doing so you will stroke their deep-rooted narcissism and lower their defenses. Indulge your targets' every mood and whim, giving them nothing to react against or resist.

8 Create Temptation page 229

Lure the target deep into your seduction by creating the proper temptation: a glimpse of the pleasures to come. As the serpent tempted Eve with the promise of forbidden knowledge, you must awaken a desire in your targets that they cannot control. Find that weakness of theirs, that fantasy that has yet to be realized, and hint that you can lead them toward it. The key is to keep it vague. Stimulate a curiosity stronger than the doubts and anxieties that go with it, and they will follow you.

Phase Two: Lead Astray—Creating Pleasure and Confusion

9 Keep Them in Suspense—What Comes Next? page 241

The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power. The only way to lead the seduced along and keep the up-per hand is to create suspense, a calculated surprise. Doing something they do not expect from you will give them a delightful sense of spontaneity—they will not be able to foresee what comes next. You are always one step ahead and in control. Give the victim a thrill with a sud-den change of direction.

Contents • xv

10 Use the Demonic Power of Words to Sow Confusion page 251

It is hard to make people listen; they are consumed with their own thoughts and desires, and have little time for yours. The trick to making them listen is to say what they want to hear, to

fill their ears with whatever is pleasant to them. This is the essence of seductive language. In-

flame people's emotions with loaded phrases, flatter them, comfort their insecurities, envelop them in sweet words and promises, and not only will they listen to you, they will lose their will to resist you.

11 Pay Attention to Detail page 265

Lofty words of love and grand gestures can be suspicious: Why are you trying so hard to please? The details of a seduction—the subtle gestures, the offhand things you do—are often more charming and revealing. You must learn to distract your victims with a myriad of pleas-ant little rituals—thoughtful gifts tailored just for them, clothes and adornments designed to please them, gestures that show the time and attention you are paying them. Mesmerized by what they see, they will not notice what you are really up to.

12 Poeticize Your Presence page 277

Important things happen when your targets are alone: The slightest feeling of relief that you are not there, and it is all over. Familiarity and overexposure will cause this reaction. Remain elusive, then. Intrigue your targets by alternating an exciting presence with a cool distance, exuberant moments followed by calculated absences. Associate yourself with poetic images and objects, so that when they think of you, they begin to see you through an idealized halo. The more you figure in their minds, the more they will envelop you in seductive fantasies.

13 Disarm Through Strategic Weakness and Vulnerability page 285

Too much maneuvering on your part may raise suspicion. The best way to cover your tracks is to make the other person feel superior and stronger. If you seem to be weak, vulnerable, en-thralled by the other person, and unable to control yourself you will make your actions look more natural, less calculated. Physical weakness—tears, bashfulness, paleness—will help cre-ate the effect. Play the victim, then transform your target's sympathy into love.

14 Confuse Desire and Reality—The Perfect Illusion page 295

To compensate for the difficulties in their lives, people spend a lot of their time daydreaming, imagining a future full of adventure, success, and romance. If you can create the illusion that through you they can live out their dreams, you will have them at your mercy. Aim at secret wishes that have been thwarted or repressed, stirring up uncontrollable emotions, clouding their powers of reason. Lead the seduced to a point of confusion in which they can no longer tell the difference between illusion and reality.

15 Isolate the Victim page 309

An isolated person is weak. By slowly isolating your victims, you make them more vulnerable to your influence. Take them away from their normal milieu, friends, family, home. Give them the sense of being marginalized, in limbo—they are leaving one world behind and entering another. Once isolated like this, they have no outside support, and in their confusion they are easily led astray. Lure the seduced into your lair, where nothing is familiar.

xvi • Contents

Phase Three: The Precipice—Deepening the Effect Through Extreme Measures

16 Prove Yourself page 321

Most people want to be seduced. If they resist your efforts, it is probably because you ham' not gone far enough to allay their doubts—about your motives, the depth of your feelings, and so on. One well-timed action that shows how far you are willing to go to win them over will dis-pel their doubts. Do not worry about looking foolish or making a mistake—any kind of deed that is self-sacrificing and for your targets' sake will so overwhelm their emotions, they won't notice anything else.

17 Effect a Regression page 333

People who have experienced a certain kind of pleasure in the past will try to repeat or relive it. The deepest-rooted and most pleasurable memories are usually those from earliest child-hood, and are often unconsciously associated with a parental figure. Bring your targets back to that point by placing yourself in the oedipal triangle and positioning them as the needy child. Unaware of the cause of their emotional response, they will fall in love with you.

18 Stir Up the Transgressive and Taboo page 349

There are always social limits on what one can do. Some of these, the most elemental taboos,

go back centuries; others are more superficial, simply defining polite and acceptable behavior. Making your targets feel that you are leading them past either kind of limit is immensely se-ductive. People yearn to explore their dark side. Once the desire to transgress draws your tar-

gets to you, it will be hard for them to stop. Take them farther than they imagined—the shared feeling of guilt and complicity will create a powerful bond.

19 Use Spiritual Lures page 359

Everyone has doubts and insecurities—about their body, their self-worth, their sexuality. If your seduction appeals exclusively to the physical, you will stir up these doubts and make your targets self-conscious. Instead, lure them out of their insecurities by making them focus on something sublime and spiritual: a religious experience, a lofty work of art, the occult. Lost in a spiritual mist, the target will feel light and uninhibited. Deepen the effect of your seduction by making its sexual culmination seem like the spiritual union of two souls.

20 Mix Pleasure with Pain page 369

The greatest mistake in seduction is being too nice. At first, perhaps, your kindness is charm-ing, but it soon grows monotonous; you are trying too hard to please, and seem insecure. In-stead of overwhelming your targets with niceness, try inflicting some pain. Make them feel guilty and insecure. Instigate a breakup—now a rapprochement, a return to your earlier kind-ness, will turn them weak at the knees. The lower the lows you create, the greater the highs. To heighten the erotic charge, create the excitement of fear.

Contents • xvii

Phase Four: Moving In for the Kill

21 Give Them Space to Fall—The Pursuer Is Pursued page 383

If your targets become too used to you as the aggressor, they will give less of their own energy, and the tension will slacken. You need to wake them up, turn the tables. Once they are under your spell, take a step bach and they will start to come after you. Hint that you are growing bored. Seem interested in someone else. Soon they will want to possess you physically, and re-straint will go out the window. Create the illusion that the seducer is being seduced.

22 Use Physical Lures page 393

Targets with active minds are dangerous: If they see through your manipulations, they may suddenly develop doubts. Put their minds gently to rest, and waken their dormant senses, by combining a nondefensive attitude with a charged sexual presence. While your cool, noncha-lant air is lowering their inhibitions, your glances, voice, and bearing—oozing sex and desire—are getting under their skin and raising their temperature. Never force the physical; instead infect your targets with heat, lure them into lust. Morality, judgment, and concern for the future will all melt away.

23 Master the Art of the Bold Move page 405

A moment has arrived: Your victim clearly desires you, but is not ready to admit it openly, let alone act on it. This is the time to throw aside chivalry, kindness, and coquetry and to over-whelm with a bold move. Don't give the victim time to consider the consequences. Showing hesitation or awkwardness means you are thinking of yourself as opposed to being over-whelmed by the victim's charms. One person must go on the offensive, and it is you.

24 Beware the Aftereffects page 415

Danger follows in the aftermath of a successful seduction. After emotions have reached a pitch, they often swing in the opposite direction—toward lassitude, distrust, disappointment. If you are to part, make the sacrifice swift and sudden. If you are to stay in a relationship, beware a flagging of energy, a creeping familiarity that will spoil the fantasy. A second seduction is re-quired. Never let the other person take you for granted—use absence, create pain and conflict, to keep the seduced on tenterhooks.

Appendix A: Seductive Environment/Seductive Time page 431

Appendix B: Soft Seduction: How to Sell Anything to the Masses page 441

Selected Bibliography • 455

Index • 457

Preface

Thousands of years ago, power was mostly gained through physical vio-

lence and maintained with brute strength. There was little need for

subtlety—a king or emperor had to be merciless. Only a select few had

power, but no one suffered under this scheme of things more than women.

They had no way to compete, no weapon at their disposal that could make

a man do what they wanted—politically, socially, or even in the home. Oppression and scorn,

Of course men had one weakness: their insatiable desire for sex. A thus, were and must have

woman could always toy with this desire, but once she gave in to sex the been generally the share of

women in emerging

man was back in control; and if she withheld sex, he could simply look societies; this state lasted in elsewhere—or exert force. What good was a power that was so temporary all its force until centuries

and frail? Yet women had no choice but to submit to this condition. There of experience taught them

were some, though, whose hunger for power was too great, and who, over Women at last sensed that, to substitute skill for force.

the years, through much cleverness and creativity, invented a way of turn-since they were weaker,

ing the dynamic around, creating a more lasting and effective form of their only resource was to

power. seduce; they understood

that if they were dependent

These women—among them Bathsheba, from the Old Testament; on men through force, men

Helen of Troy; the Chinese siren Hsi Shi; and the greatest of them all, could become dependent on

Cleopatra—invented seduction. First they would draw a man in with an al-them through pleasure.

More unhappy than men,

luring appearance, designing their makeup and adornment to fashion the they must have thought

image of a goddess come to life. By showing only glimpses of flesh, they and reflected earlier than

would tease a man's imagination, stimulating the desire not just for sex but did men; they were the first

to know that pleasure was

for something greater: the chance to possess a fantasy figure. Once they had always beneath the idea their victims' interest, these women would lure them away from the mascu- that one formed of it, and

line world of war and politics and get them to spend time in the feminine that the imagination went

world—a world of luxury, spectacle, and pleasure. They might also lead farther than nature. Once

these basic truths were

them astray literally, taking them on a journey, as Cleopatra lured Julius known, they learned first

Caesar on a trip down the Nile. Men would grow hooked on these refined, to veil their charms in order

sensual pleasures—they would fall in love. But then, invariably, the women to awaken curiosity; they

practiced the difficult art of

would turn cold and indifferent, confusing their victims. Just when the refusing even as they

men wanted more, they found their pleasures withdrawn. They would be wished to consent; from

forced into pursuit, trying anything to win back the favors they once had that moment on, they

knew how to set men's

tasted and growing weak and emotional in the process. Men who had imagination afire, they physical force and all the social power—men like King David, the Trojan knew how to arouse and

Paris, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, King Fu Chai—would find themselves direct desires as they

becoming the slave of a woman. and love come into being; pleased: thus did beauty

In the face of violence and brutality, these women made seduction a now the lot of women

xx • Preface

became less harsh, not that sophisticated art, the ultimate form of power and persuasion. They learned

they had managed to to work on the mind first, stimulating fantasies, keeping a man wanting

liberate themselves entirely more, creating patterns of hope and despair—the essence of seduction.

from the state of oppression

to which their weakness Their power was not physical but psychological, not forceful but indirect

condemned them; but, in and cunning. These first great seductresses were like military generals plan-

the state of perpetual war ning the destruction of an enemy, and indeed early accounts of seduction

that continues to exist

between women and men, often compare it to battle, the feminine version of warfare. For Cleopatra,

one has seen them, with it was a means of consolidating an empire. In seduction, the woman was no

the help of the caresses they longer a passive sex object; she had become an active agent, a figure of

have been able to invent,

combat ceaselessly, power.

sometimes vanquish, and With a few exceptions—the Latin poet Ovid, the medieval

often more skillfully take troubadours—men did not much concern themselves with such a frivolous

advantage of the forces

directed against them; art as seduction. Then, in the seventeenth century came a great change:

sometimes, too, men have men grew interested in seduction as a way to overcome a young woman's

turned against women resistance to sex. History's first great male seducers—the Duke de Lauzun,

these weapons the women the different Spaniards who inspired the Don Juan legend—began to adopt

had forged to combat them,

and their slavery has the methods traditionally employed by women. They learned to dazzle

become all the harsher with their appearance (often androgynous in nature), to stimulate the

for it. imagination, to play the coquette. They also added a new, masculine ele-

— C H O D E R L O S DE LACLOS, ON ment to the game: seductive language, for they had discovered a woman's

THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN, weakness for soft words. These two forms of seduction—the feminine use

TRANSLATED BY LYDIA DAVIS, IN

THE LIBERTINE READER, of appearances and the masculine use of language—would often cross

EDITED BY MICHAEL FEHER gender lines: Casanova would dazzle a woman with his clothes; Ninon

de l'Enclos would charm a man with her words.

At the same time that men were developing their version of seduction,

Much more genius is others began to adapt the art for social purposes. As Europe's feudal system

needed to make love than

to command armies. of government faded into the past, courtiers needed to get their way in

— N I N O N D E L ' E N C L O S court without the use of force. They learned the power to be gained by se-

ducing their superiors and competitors through psychological games, soft

words, a little coquetry. As culture became democratized, actors, dandies,

Menelaus, if you are really and artists came to use the tactics of seduction as a way to charm and win

going to kill her, \ Then over their audience and social milieu. In the nineteenth century another

my blessing go with you, great change occurred: politicians like Napoleon consciously saw them-

but you must do it now, \ selves as seducers, on a grand scale. These men depended on the art of se-

Before her looks so twist

the strings of your heart \ ductive oratory, but they also mastered what had once been feminine

That they turn your mind; strategies: staging vast spectacles, using theatrical devices, creating a charged

for her eyes are like armies, physical presence. All this, they learned, was the essence of charisma—and

\And where her glances

fall, there cities burn, \ remains so today. By seducing the masses they could accumulate immense

Until the dust of their power without the use of force.

ashes is blown \ By her Today we have reached the ultimate point in the evolution of seduc-

sighs. I know her,

Men elans, \ And so do tion. Now more than ever, force or brutality of any kind is discouraged. All

you. And all those who areas of social life require the ability to persuade people in a way that does

know her suffer. not offend or impose itself. Forms of seduction can be found everywhere,

— H E C U B A SPEAKING ABOUT blending male and female strategies. Advertisements insinuate, the soft sell

HELEN OF TROY IN EURIPIDES, dominates. If we are to change people's opinions—and affecting opinion is

THE TROJAN WOMEN,

TRANSLATED BY NEIL CURRY basic to seduction—we must act in subtle, subliminal ways. Today no politi-

Preface • xxi

cal campaign can work without seduction. Since the era of John F. No man hath it in his

Kennedy, political figures are required to have a degree of charisma, a fasci-power to over-rule the

deceitfulness of a woman.

nating presence to keep their audience's attention, which is half the battle.

The film world and media create a galaxy of seductive stars and images. We — M A R G U E R I T E OF NAVARRE

are saturated in the seductive. But even if much has changed in degree and

scope, the essence of seduction is constant: never be forceful or direct; in-

stead, use pleasure as bait, playing on people's emotions, stirring desire and This important side-track,

by which woman succeeded

confusion, inducing psychological surrender. In seduction as it is practiced in evading man's strength today, the methods of Cleopatra still hold. and establishing herself in

power, has not been given

People are constantly trying to influence us, to tell us what to do, and just due consideration by

historians. From the

as often we tune them out, resisting their attempts at persuasion. There is a moment when the woman

moment in our lives, however, when we all act differently—when we are in detached herself from the

love. We fall under a kind of spell. Our minds are usually preoccupied with crowd, an individual

finished product, offering

our own concerns; now they become filled with thoughts of the loved one. delights which could not be We grow emotional, lose the ability to think straight, act in foolish ways obtained by force, but only

that we would never do otherwise. If this goes on long enough something by flattery . . . . the reign

of love's priestesses was

inside us gives way: we surrender to the will of the loved one, and to our inaugurated. It was a desire to possess them. development of far-reaching

Seducers are people who understand the tremendous power contained importance in the history of

in such moments of surrender. They analyze what happens when people the circuitous route of the civilization. . . . Only by are in love, study the psychological components of the process—what spurs art of love could woman

the imagination, what casts a spell. By instinct and through practice they again assert authority, and

master the art of making people fall in love. As the first seductresses knew, this she did by asserting

herself at the very point at

it is much more effective to create love than lust. A person in love is emo-which she would normally

tional, pliable, and easily misled. (The origin of the word "seduction" is the be a slave at the man's

Latin for "to lead astray") A person in lust is harder to control and, once mercy. She had discovered

the might of lust, the secret

satisfied, may easily leave you. Seducers take their time, create enchantment of the art of love, the

and the bonds of love, so that when sex ensues it only further enslaves daemonic power of a

the victim. Creating love and enchantment becomes the model for all passion artificially aroused

and never satiated. The

seductions—sexual, social, political. A person in love will surrender. force tints unchained was

It is pointless to try to argue against such power, to imagine that you are thenceforth to count among

not interested in it, or that it is evil and ugly. The harder you try to resist the most tremendous of the

the lure of seduction—as an idea, as a form of power—the more you will moments to have power world's forces and at find yourself fascinated. The reason is simple: most of us have known the even over life and death. . . .

power of having someone fall in love with us. Our actions, gestures, the • The deliberate spell-

things we say, all have positive effects on this person; we may not com-binding of man's senses

was to have a magical effect

pletely understand what we have done right, but this feeling of power is in-upon him, opening up an

toxicating. It gives us confidence, which makes us more seductive. We may infinitely wider range of

also experience this in a social or work setting—one day we are in an ele-sensation and spurring him

on as if impelled by an

vated mood and people seem more responsive, more charmed by us. These inspired dream.

moments of power are fleeting, but they resonate in the memory with —ALEXANDER VON G L E I C H E N -great intensity. We want them back. Nobody likes to feel awkward or timid RUSSWURM, THE WORLD'S

or unable to reach people. The siren call of seduction is irresistible because LURE, TRANSLATED BY HANNAH

WALLER

power is irresistible, and nothing will bring you more power in the modern

world than the ability to seduce. Repressing the desire to seduce is a kind of

xxii • Preface

The first thing to get in hysterical reaction, revealing your deep-down fascination with the process;

your head is that every you are only making your desires stronger. Some day they will come to the

single \ Girl can be surface.

caught—and that you'll

catch her if \ You set your To have such power does not require a total transformation in your

toils right. Birds will character or any kind of physical improvement in your looks. Seduction is a

sooner fall dumb in \ game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to

Springtime, \ Cicadas in

summer, or a hunting-dog \ become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the

Turn his back on a hare, world differently, through the eyes of a seducer.

than a lover's bland A seducer does not turn the power off and on—every social and per-

inducements \ Can fail

with a woman, Even one sonal interaction is seen as a potential seduction. There is never a moment

you suppose \ Reluctant to waste. This is so for several reasons. The power seducers have over a man

will want it. or woman works in social environments because they have learned how to

—OVID, THE ART OF LOVE, tone down the sexual element without getting rid of it. We may think we

TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN see through them, but they are so pleasant to be around anyway that it does

not matter. Trying to divide your life into moments in which you seduce

and others in which you hold back will only confuse and constrain you.

The combination of these Erotic desire and love lurk beneath the surface of almost every human en-

two elements, enchantment

and surrender, is, then, counter; better to give free rein to your skills than to try to use them only

essential to the love which in the bedroom. (In fact, the seducer sees the world as his or her bedroom.)

we are discussing. . . . This attitude creates great seductive momentum, and with each seduction

What exists in love is

surrender due to you gain experience and practice. One social or sexual seduction makes the

enchantment. next one easier, your confidence growing and making you more alluring.

—JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET, ON People are drawn to you in greater numbers as the seducer's aura descends

LOVE, TRANSLATED BY TOBY upon you.

TALBOT Seducers have a warrior's outlook on life. They see each person as a

kind of walled castle to which they are laying siege. Seduction is a process

of penetration: initially penetrating the target's mind, their first point of

What is good?—All that defense. Once seducers have penetrated the mind, making the target fanta-

heightens the feeling of

power, the will to power, size about them, it is easy to lower resistance and create physical surrender.

power itself in man. • Seducers do not improvise; they do not leave this process to chance. Like

What is b a d ? — A l l that any good general, they plan and strategize, aiming at the target's particular

proceeds from weakness. •

What is happiness?—The weaknesses.

feeling that power The main obstacle to becoming a seducer is this foolish prejudice we

increases—that a resistance have of seeing love and romance as some kind of sacred, magical realm

is overcome.

where things just fall into place, if they are meant to. This might seem ro-

— F R I E D R I C H NIETZSCHE, THE mantic and quaint, but it is really just a cover for our laziness. What will se-

ANTI—CHRIST, TRANSLATED BY

R. J. HOLLINGDALE duce a person is the effort we expend on their behalf, showing how much

we care, how much they are worth. Leaving things to chance is a recipe for

disaster, and reveals that we do not take love and romance very seriously. It

was the effort Casanova expended, the artfulness he applied to each affair

that made him so devilishly seductive. Falling in love is a matter not of

magic but of psychology. Once you understand your target's psychology,

and strategize to suit it, you will be better able to cast a "magical" spell. A

seducer sees love not as sacred but as warfare, where all is fair.

Seducers are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed outward, not

inward. When they meet someone their first move is to get inside that per-

Preface • xxiii

son's skin, to see the world through their eyes. The reasons for this are sev-The disaffection, neurosis,

eral. First, self-absorption is a sign of insecurity; it is anti-seductive. Every-anguish and frustration

one has insecurities, but seducers manage to ignore them, finding therapy psychoanalysis comes no encountered by for moments of self-doubt by being absorbed in the world. This gives them doubt from being unable to

a buoyant spirit—we want to be around them. Second, getting into some-love or to be loved, from

one's skin, imagining what it is like to be them, helps the seducer gather being unable to give or take

pleasure, but the radical

valuable information, learn what makes that person tick, what will make disenchantment comes from

them lose their ability to think straight and fall into a trap. Armed with seduction and its failure.

such information, they can provide focused and individualized attention—a Only those who lie

completely outside

rare commodity in a world in which most people see us only from behind seduction are ill, even if

the screen of their own prejudices. Getting into the targets' skin is the first they remain fully capable of

important tactical move in the war of penetration. loving and making love.

Psychoanalysis believes it

Seducers see themselves as providers of pleasure, like bees that gather treats the disorder of sex

pollen from some flowers and deliver it to others. As children we mostly and desire, but in reality it

devoted our lives to play and pleasure. Adults often have feelings of being is dealing with the

cut off from this paradise, of being weighed down by responsibilities. The disorders of seduction. . . .

The most serious

seducer knows that people are waiting for pleasure—they never get enough deficiencies always concern

of it from friends and lovers, and they cannot get it by themselves. A person charm and not pleasure,

who enters their lives offering adventure and romance cannot be resisted. enchantment and not some

vital or sexual satisfaction.

Pleasure is a feeling of being taken past our limits, of being overwhelmed—

—JEAN BAUDRILLARD,

by another person, by an experience. People are dying to be overwhelmed, SEDUCTION

to let go of their usual stubbornness. Sometimes their resistance to us is

a way of saying, Please seduce me. Seducers know that the possibility of

pleasure will make a person follow them, and the experience of it will Whatever is done from love make someone open up, weak to the touch. They also train themselves to always occurs beyond good

be sensitive to pleasure, knowing that feeling pleasure themselves will make and evil.

it that much easier for them to infect the people around them. — F R I E D R I C H NIETZSCHE,

A seducer sees all of life as theater, everyone an actor. Most people feel BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL,

TRANSLATED BY WALTER

they have constricted roles in life, which makes them unhappy. Seducers, KAUFMANN

on the other hand, can be anyone and can assume many roles. (The arche-

type here is the god Zeus, insatiable seducer of young maidens, whose

main weapon was the ability to assume the form of whatever person or ani-

mal would most appeal to his victim.) Seducers take pleasure in performing

and are not weighed down by their identity, or by some need to be them-

selves, or to be natural. This freedom of theirs, this fluidity in body and

spirit, is what makes them attractive. What people lack in life is not more

reality but illusion, fantasy, play. The clothes that seducers wear, the places

they take you to, their words and actions, are slightly heightened—not

overly theatrical but with a delightful edge of unreality, as if the two of you

were living out a piece of fiction or were characters in a film. Seduction is

a kind of theater in real life, the meeting of illusion and reality.

Finally, seducers are completely amoral in their approach to life. It is all

a game, an arena for play. Knowing that the moralists, the crabbed repressed

types who croak about the evils of the seducer, secretly envy their power,

they do not concern themselves with other people's opinions. They do not

deal in moral judgments—nothing could be less seductive. Everything is

xxiv • Preface

Should anyone here in pliant, fluid, like life itself. Seduction is a form of deception, but people

Rome lack finesse at love- want to be led astray, they yearn to be seduced. If they didn't, seducers

making, \ Let him \ Try would not find so many willing victims. Get rid of any moralizing tenden-

me—read my book, and

results are guaranteed! \ cies, adopt the seducer's playful philosophy, and you will find the rest of the

Technique is the secret. process easy and natural.

Charioteer, sailor,

oarsman, \ All need it.

Technique can control \ The Art of Seduction is designed to arm you with weapons of persuasion and

Love himself. charm, so that those around you will slowly lose their ability to resist with-

— O V I D , THE ART OF LOVE, out knowing how or why it has happened. It is an art of war for delicate

TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN times.

Every seduction has two elements that you must analyze and under-

stand: first, yourself and what is seductive about you; and second, your tar-

get and the actions that will penetrate their defenses and create surrender.

The two sides are equally important. If you strategize without paying at-

tention to the parts of your character that draw people to you, you will be

seen as a mechanical seducer, slimy and manipulative. If you rely on your

seductive personality without paying attention to the other person, you will

make terrible mistakes and limit your potential.

Consequently, The Art of Seduction is divided into two parts. The first

half, "The Seductive Character," describes the nine types of seducer, plus

the Anti-Seducer. Studying these types will make you aware of what is

inherently seductive in your character, the basic building block of any se-

duction. The second half, "The Seductive Process," includes the twenty-

four maneuvers and strategies that will instruct you on how to create a

spell, break down people's resistance, give movement and force to your

seduction, and induce surrender in your target. As a kind of bridge be-

tween the two parts, there is a chapter on the eighteen types of victims of a

seduction—each of them missing something from their lives, each cradling

an emptiness you can fill. Knowing what type you are dealing with will

help you put into practice the ideas in both sections. Ignore any part of this

book and you will be an incomplete seducer.

The ideas and strategies in The Art of Seduction are based on the writings

and historical accounts of the most successful seducers in history. The

sources include the seducers' own memoirs (by Casanova, Errol Flynn, Na-

talie Barney, Marilyn Monroe); biographies (of Cleopatra, Josephine Bona-

parte, John F. Kennedy, Duke Ellington); handbooks on the subject (most

notably Ovid's Art of Love); and fictional accounts of seductions (Choderlos

de Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons, Søren Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary,

Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji). The heroes and heroines of these lit-

erary works are generally modeled on real-life seducers. The strategies they

employ reveal the intimate connection between fiction and seduction, cre-

ating illusion and leading a person along. In putting the book's lessons into

practice, you will be following in the path of the greatest masters of the art.

Finally, the spirit that will make you a consummate seducer is the spirit

in which you should read this book. The French writer Denis Diderot

once wrote, "I give my mind the liberty to follow the first wise or foolish

Preface • xxv

idea that presents itself, just as in the avenue de Foy our dissolute youths

follow close on the heels of some strumpet, then leave her to pursue an-

other, attacking all of them and attaching themselves to none. My thoughts

are my strumpets." He meant that he let himself be seduced by ideas, fol-

lowing whichever one caught his fancy until a better one came along, his

thoughts infused with a kind of sexual excitement. Once you enter these

pages, do as Diderot advised: let yourself be lured by the stories and ideas,

your mind open and your thoughts fluid. Slowly you will find yourself ab-

sorbing the poison through the skin and you will begin to see everything as

a seduction, including the way you think and how you look at the world.

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

—NATALIE BARNEY

We all have the power of attraction—the ability to draw people in and hold them in our thrall. Far from all of us, though, are aware of this

inner potential, and we imagine attractiveness instead as a near-mystical

trait that a select few are born with and the rest will never command. Yet all

we need to do to realize our potential is understand what it is in a person's

character that naturally excites people and develop these latent qualities

within us.

Successful seductions rarely begin with an obvious maneuver or strate-

gic device. That is certain to arouse suspicion. Successful seductions begin

with your character, your ability to radiate some quality that attracts people

and stirs their emotions in a way that is beyond their control. Hypnotized

by your seductive character, your victims will not notice your subsequent

manipulations. It will then be child's play to mislead and seduce them.

There are nine seducer types in the world. Each type has a particular

character trait that comes from deep within and creates a seductive pull.

Sirens have an abundance of sexual energy and know how to use it. Rakes

insatiably adore the opposite sex, and their desire is infectious. Ideal Lovers

have an aesthetic sensibility that they apply to romance. Dandies like to play

with their image, creating a striking and androgynous allure. Naturals are

spontaneous and open. Coquettes are self-sufficient, with a fascinating cool

at their core. Charmers want and know how to please—they are social crea-

tures. Charismatics have an unusual confidence in themselves. Stars are ethe-

real and envelop themselves in mystery.

The chapters in this section will take you inside each of the nine types.

At least one of the chapters should strike a chord—you will recognize part

of yourself. That chapter will be the key to developing your own powers of

attraction. Let us say you have coquettish tendencies. The Coquette chap-

ter will show you how to build upon your own self-sufficiency, alternating

heat and coldness to ensnare your victims. It will show you how to take

your natural qualities further, becoming a grand Coquette, the type we

fight over. There is no point in being timid with a seductive quality. We are

charmed by an unabashed Rake and excuse his excesses, but a halfhearted

Rake gets no respect. Once you have cultivated your dominant character

trait, adding some art to what nature has given you, you can then develop a

second or third trait, adding depth and mystery to your persona. Finally the

section's tenth chapter, on the Anti-Seducer, will make you aware of the op-

3

4 • The Art of Seduction

posite potential within you—the power of repulsion. At all cost you must

root out any anti-seductive tendencies you may have.

Think of the nine types as shadows, silhouettes. Only by stepping into

one of them and letting it grow inside you can you begin to develop the

seductive character that will bring you limitless power.

A

man is often

secretly oppressed by

the role he has to

play—by always having to

be responsible, in control, and

rational. The Siren is the ulti-

mate male fantasy figure because

she offers a total release from the

limitations of his life. In her pres-

ence, which is always heightened and

sexually charged, the male feels

transported to a world of pure plea-

sure. She is dangerous, and in pursu-

ing her energetically the man can lose

control over himself something he

yearns to do. The Siren is a mirage;

she lures men by cultivating a par-

ticular appearance and manner.

In a world where women are

often too timid to project such

an image, learn to take

control of the male li-

bido by embodying

his fantasy.

The Spectacular Siren

In the year 48 B.C., Ptolemy XIV of Egypt managed to depose and exile his sister and wife, Queen Cleopatra. He secured the country's borders against her return and began to rule on his own. Later that year, Julius Cae-

sar came to Alexandria to ensure that despite the local power struggles,

Egypt would remain loyal to Rome.

One night Caesar was meeting with his generals in the Egyptian palace, In the mean time our good

discussing strategy, when a guard entered to report that a Greek merchant ship, with that perfect wind

was at the door bearing a large and valuable gift for the Roman leader. to drive her, fast

approached the Sirens' Isle.

Caesar, in the mood for a little fun, gave the merchant permission to enter. But now the breeze The man came in, carrying on his shoulders a large rolled-up carpet. He dropped, some power lulled

undid the rope around the bundle and with a snap of his wrists unfurled the waves, and a breathless

it—revealing the young Cleopatra, who had been hidden inside, and who calm set in. Rising from

their seats my men drew

rose up half clothed before Caesar and his guests, like Venus emerging from in the sail and threw it into

the waves. the hold, then sat down

Everyone was dazzled at the sight of the beautiful young queen (only at the oars and churned the

water white with their

twenty-one at the time) appearing before them suddenly as if in a dream. blades of polished pine.

They were astounded at her daring and theatricality—smuggled into the Meanwhile I took a large

harbor at night with only one man to protect her, risking everything on a round of wax, cut it up

small with my sword, and

bold move. No one was more enchanted than Caesar. According to the kneaded the pieces with all Roman writer Dio Cassius, "Cleopatra was in the prime of life. She had a the strength of my fingers.

delightful voice which could not fail to cast a spell over all who heard it. The wax soon yielded to

Such was the charm of her person and her speech that they drew the cold-grew warm, for I had the my vigorous treatment and est and most determined misogynist into her toils. Caesar was spellbound as rays of my Lord the Sun to

soon as he set eyes on her and she opened her mouth to speak." That same help me. I took each of my

evening Cleopatra became Caesar s lover. men in turn and plugged

their ears with it. They

Caesar had had numerous mistresses before, to divert him from the rig-then made me a prisoner

ors of his campaigns. But he had always disposed of them quickly to return on my ship by binding me

to what really thrilled him—political intrigue, the challenges of warfare, hand and foot, standing

me up by the step of the

the Roman theater. Caesar had seen women try anything to keep him un-mast and tying the rope's

der their spell. Yet nothing prepared him for Cleopatra. One night she ends to the mast itself.

would tell him how together they could revive the glory of Alexander the This done, they sat down

once more and struck the

Great, and rule the world like gods. The next she would entertain him grey water with their oars. dressed as the goddess Isis, surrounded by the opulence of her court. • We made good progress

Cleopatra initiated Caesar in the most decadent revelries, presenting herself and had just come within

as the incarnation of the Egyptian exotic. His life with her was a constant call of the shore when the

Sirens became aware that a

game, as challenging as warfare, for the moment he felt secure with her she ship was swiftly bearing

7

8 • The Art of Seduction

down upon them, and would suddenly turn cold or angry and he would have to find a way to re-

broke into their liquid song. gain her favor.

• "Draw near," they sang, The weeks went by. Caesar got rid of all Cleopatra's rivals and found

"illustrious Odysseus,

flower of Achaean chivalry, excuses to stay in Egypt. At one point she led him on a lavish historical ex-

and bring your ship to rest pedition down the Nile. In a boat of unimaginable splendor—towering

so that you may hear our fifty-four feet out of the water, including several terraced levels and a pil-

voices. No seaman ever

sailed his black ship past lared temple to the god Dionysus—Caesar became one of the few Romans

this spot without listening to gaze on the pyramids. And while he stayed long in Egypt, away from

to the sweet tones that flow his throne in Rome, all kinds of turmoil erupted throughout the Roman

from our lips . . ." • The

lovely voices came to me Empire.

across the water, and my When Caesar was murdered, in 44 B.C., he was succeeded by a triumvi-

heart was filled with such a rate of rulers including Mark Antony, a brave soldier who loved pleasure

longing to listen that with and spectacle and fancied himself a kind of Roman Dionysus. A few years nod and frown I signed to

my men to set me free. later, while Antony was in Syria, Cleopatra invited him to come meet her

— H O M E R , THE ODYSSEY, BOOK in the Egyptian town of Tarsus. There—once she had made him wait for

X I I , T R A N S L A T E D B Y E . V . R I E U her—her appearance was as startling in its way as her first before Caesar. A

magnificent gold barge with purple sails appeared on the river Cydnus. The

oarsmen rowed to the accompaniment of ethereal music; all around the

The charm of [Cleopatra's] boat were beautiful young girls dressed as nymphs and mythological figures.

presence was irresistible,

and there was an attraction Cleopatra sat on deck, surrounded and fanned by cupids and posed as the

in her person and talk, goddess Aphrodite, whose name the crowd chanted enthusiastically.

together with a peculiar Like all of Cleopatra's victims, Antony felt mixed emotions. The exotic

force of character, which

pervaded her every word pleasures she offered were hard to resist. But he also wanted to tame her—to

and action, and laid all defeat this proud and illustrious woman would prove his greatness. And so

who associated with her he stayed, and, like Caesar, fell slowly under her spell. She indulged him in under its spell. It was a

delight merely to hear the all of his weaknesses—gambling, raucous parties, elaborate rituals, lavish

sound of her voice, with spectacles. To get him to come back to Rome, Octavius, another member of

which, like an instrument the Roman triumvirate, offered him a wife: Octavius's own sister, Octavia, of many strings, she could

pass from one language to one of the most beautiful women in Rome. Known for her virtue and

another. goodness, she could surely keep Antony away from the "Egyptian whore."

— P L U T A R C H , MAKERS OF The ploy worked for a while, but Antony was unable to forget Cleopatra,

ROME, TRANSLATED BY IAN and after three years he went back to her. This time it was for good: he had

SCOTT-KILVERT in essence become Cleopatra's slave, granting her immense powers, adopting

Egyptian dress and customs, and renouncing the ways of Rome.

The immediate attraction

of a song, a voice, or scent. Only one image of Cleopatra survives—a barely visible profile on a coin—

The attraction of the but we have numerous written descriptions. She had a long thin face and a

panther with his perfumed somewhat pointed nose; her dominant features were her wonderfully large scent . . . According to the

ancients, the panther is eyes. Her seductive power, however, did not lie in her looks—indeed many

the only animal who emits among the women of Alexandria were considered more beautiful than she.

a perfumed odor. It uses What she did have above all other women was the ability to distract a man.

this scent to draw and

capture its victims. . . . In reality, Cleopatra was physically unexceptional and had no political

But what is it that seduces power, yet both Caesar and Antony, brave and clever men, saw none of

in a scent? . . . What is it this. What they saw was a woman who constantly transformed herself be-

in the song of the Sirens

that seduces us, or in the fore their eyes, a one-woman spectacle. Her dress and makeup changed

beauty of a face, in the depths from day to day, but always gave her a heightened, goddesslike appearance.

The Siren • 9

Her voice, which all writers talk of, was lilting and intoxicating. Her words of an abyss . . . ?

could be banal enough, but were spoken so sweetly that listeners would Seduction lies in the

find themselves remembering not what she said but how she said it. annulment of signs and

their meaning, in pure

Cleopatra provided constant variety—tributes, mock battles, expedi-appearance. The eyes that

tions, costumed orgies. Everything had a touch of drama and was accom-seduce have no meaning,

plished with great energy. By the time your head lay on the pillow beside they end in the gaze, as

the face with makeup

her, your mind was spinning with images and dreams. And just when you ends in only pure thought you had this fluid, larger-than-life woman, she would turn distant appearance. . . . The scent

or angry, making it clear that everything was on her terms. You never pos- of the panther is also a

sessed Cleopatra, you worshiped her. In this way a woman who had been behind the message the meaningless message—and exiled and destined for an early death managed to turn it all around and panther is invisible, as is

rule Egypt for close to twenty years. the woman beneath her

From Cleopatra we learn that it is not beauty that makes a Siren but makeup. The Sirens too

remained unseen. The

rather a theatrical streak that allows a woman to embody a man's fantasies. enchantment lies in what

A man grows bored with a woman, no matter how beautiful; he yearns for is hidden.

different pleasures, and for adventure. All a woman needs to turn this —JEAN BAUDRILLARD, DE LA

around is to create the illusion that she offers such variety and adventure. A SÉDUCTION

man is easily deceived by appearances; he has a weakness for the visual.

Create the physical presence of a Siren (heightened sexual allure mixed

with a regal and theatrical manner) and he is trapped. He cannot grow

bored with you yet he cannot discard you. Keep up the distractions, and We're dazzled by feminine

never let him see who you really are. He will follow you until he drowns. adornment, by the surface,

\ All gold and jewels: so

little of what we observe \

Is the girl herself And

The Sex Siren where (you may ask) amid such plenty \ Can our

object of passion be found?

Norma Jean Mortensen, the future Marilyn Monroe, spent part of her The eye's deceived \ By Love's smart camouflage. childhood in Los Angeles orphanages. Her days were filled with

chores and no play. At school, she kept to herself, smiled rarely, and — O V I D , CURES FOR LOVE,

dreamed a lot. One day when she was thirteen, as she was dressing for TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN

school, she noticed that the white blouse the orphanage provided for her

was torn, so she had to borrow a sweater from a younger girl in the house.

The sweater was several sizes too small. That day, suddenly, boys seemed to He was herding his cattle

gather around her wherever she went (she was extremely well-developed on Mount Gargarus, the

for her age). She wrote in her diary, "They stared at my sweater as if it were Hermes, accompanied by highest peak of Ida, when

a gold mine." Hera, Athene, and

The revelation was simple but startling. Previously ignored and even Aphrodite delivered the

ridiculed by the other students, Norma Jean now sensed a way to gain at-golden apple and Zeus's

message: "Paris, since you

tention, maybe even power, for she was wildly ambitious. She started to are as handsome as you are

smile more, wear makeup, dress differently. And soon she noticed some- wise in affairs of the heart,

thing equally startling: without her having to say or do anything, boys fell Zeus commands you to

judge which of these

passionately in love with her. "My admirers all said the same thing in differ-goddesses is the fairest. " • ent ways," she wrote. "It was my fault, their wanting to kiss me and hug "So be it," sighed Paris.

me. Some said it was the way I looked at them—with eyes full of passion. "But first I beg the losers

not to be vexed with me. I

Others said it was my voice that lured them on. Still others said I gave off am only a human being,

vibrations that floored them." liable to make the stupidest

10 • The Art of Seduction

mistakes." • The A few years later Marilyn was trying to make it in the film business.

goddesses all agreed to Producers would tell her the same thing: she was attractive enough in per-

abide by his decision. • son, but her face wasn't pretty enough for the movies. She was getting

"Will it be enough to

judge them as they are?" work as an extra, and when she was on-screen—even if only for a few sec-

Paris asked Hermes, "or onds—the men in the audience would go wild, and the theaters would

should they he naked?" • erupt in catcalls. But nobody saw any star quality in this. One day in 1949,

"The rules of the contest

are for you to decide," only twenty-three at the time and her career at a standstill, Monroe met

Hermes answered with a someone at a diner who told her that a producer casting a new Groucho

discreet smile. • "In that Marx movie, Love Happy, was looking for an actress for the part of a blond

case, will they kindly

disrobe?" • Hermes told bombshell who could walk by Groucho in a way that would, in his words,

the goddesses to do so, and "arouse my elderly libido and cause smoke to issue from my ears." Talking

politely turned his back. • her way into an audition, she improvised this walk. "It's Mae West, Theda

Aphrodite was soon ready, Bara, and Bo Peep all rolled into one," said Groucho after watching her

but Athene insisted that

she should remove the saunter by. "We shoot the scene tomorrow morning." And so Marilyn cre-

famous magic girdle, which ated her infamous walk, a walk that was hardly natural but offered a strange

gave her an unfair mix of innocence and sex.

advantage by making

everyone fall in love Over the next few years, Marilyn taught herself through trial and er-

withthe wearer. "Very ror how to heighten the effect she had on men. Her voice had always been

well" said Aphrodite attractive—it was the voice of a little girl. But on film it had limitations un-spitefully. "I will, on

condition that you remove til someone finally taught her to lower it, giving it the deep, breathy tones

your helmet—you look that became her seductive trademark, a mix of the little girl and the vixen.

hideous without it. " • Before appearing on set, or even at a party, Marilyn would spend hours be-

"Now, if you please, 1

must judge you one at fore the mirror. Most people assumed this was vanity—she was in love with

a time" announced her image. The truth was that image took hours to create. Marilyn spent

Paris. . . . Come here, years studying and practicing the art of makeup. The voice, the walk, the

Divine Hera! Will you face and look were all constructions, an act. At the height of her fame, she

other two goddesses be good

enough to leave us for a would get a thrill by going into bars in New York City without her makeup

while?" • "Examine me or glamorous clothes and passing unnoticed.

conscientiously," said Hera, Success finally came, but with it came something deeply annoying to

turning slowly around, and

displaying her magnificent her: the studios would only cast her as the blond bombshell. She wanted se-

figure, "and remember that rious roles, but no one took her seriously for those parts, no matter how

if you judge me the fairest, hard she downplayed the siren qualities she had built up. One day, while she

1 will make you lord of all

Asia, and the richest man was rehearsing a scene from The Cherry Orchard, her acting instructor, Mi-

alive. " • "I am not to be chael Chekhov, asked her, "Were you thinking of sex while we played the

bribed my Lady . . . Very scene?" When she said no, he continued, "All through our playing of the

well, thank you. Now I

have seen all that I need to scene I kept receiving sex vibrations from you. As if you were a woman in

see. Come, Divine the grip of passion. . . . I understand your problem with your studio now,

Athene!" • "Here I am," Marilyn. You are a woman who gives off sex vibrations—no matter what

said Athene, striding you are doing or thinking. The whole world has already responded to those

purposefully forward.

"Listen, Paris, if you have vibrations. They come off the movie screens when you are on them."

enough common sense to

award me the prize, I will Marilyn Monroe loved the effect her body could have on the male libido.

make you victorious in

all your battles, as well She tuned her physical presence like an instrument, making herself reek of

as the handsomest and sex and gaining a glamorous, larger-than-life appearance. Other women

wisest man in the world." knew just as many tricks for heightening their sexual appeal, but what sepa-

• "I am a humble

rated Marilyn from them was an unconscious element. Her background

The Siren • 11

had deprived her of something critical: affection. Her deepest need was to herdsman, not a soldier,"

feel loved and desired, which made her seem constantly vulnerable, like a said Paris. . . . "But I

little girl craving protection. She emanated this need for love before the promise to consider fairly

your claim to the apple.

camera; it was effortless, coming from somewhere real and deep inside. A Now you are at liberty to

look or gesture that she did not intend to arouse desire would do so doubly put on your clothes and

powerfully just because it was unintended—its innocence was precisely helmet again. Is Aphrodite

ready?" • Aphrodite sidled

what excited a man. up to him, and Paris

The Sex Siren has a more urgent and immediate effect than the Spec-blushed because she came

tacular Siren does. The incarnation of sex and desire, she does not bother so close that they were

almost touching. • "Look

to appeal to extraneous senses, or to create a theatrical buildup. Her time carefully, please, pass

never seems to be taken up by work or chores; she gives the impression that nothing over. . . . By the

she lives for pleasure and is always available. What separates the Sex Siren way, as soon as I saw you,

from the courtesan or whore is her touch of innocence and vulnerability. word, there goes the I said to myself: 'Upon my The mix is perversely satisfying: it gives the male the critical illusion that he handsomest young man in

is a protector, the father figure, although it is actually the Sex Siren who Phrygia! Why does he

controls the dynamic. waste himself here in the

wilderness herding stupid

A woman doesn't have to be born with the attributes of a Marilyn cattle?' Well, why do you,

Monroe to fill the role of the Sex Siren. Most of the physical elements are Paris? Why not move into

a construction; the key is the air of schoolgirl innocence. While one part of a city and lead a civilized

life? What have you to lose

you seems to scream sex, the other part is coy and naive, as if you were in- by marrying someone like

capable of understanding the effect you are having. Your walk, your voice, Helen of Sparta, who is as

your manner are delightfully ambiguous—you are both the experienced, beautiful as I am, and no

less passionate? . . . I

desiring woman and the innocent gamine. suggest now that you tour

Greece with my son Eros

Your next encounter will be with the Sirens, who bewitch as your guide. Once you

every man that approaches them. . . . For with the music reach Sparta, he and I will

see that Helen falls head

of their song the Sirens cast their spell upon him, as they over heels in love with

sit there in a meadow piled high with the moldering skele- you." • "Would you swear

tons of men, whose withered skin still hangs upon their to that?" Paris ashed

bones. excitedly. • Aphrodite

uttered a solemn oath, and

—CIRCE TO ODYSSEUS, THE ODYSSEY, BOOK XII Paris, without a second

thought, awarded her the

golden apple.

Keys to the Character — R O B E R T GRAVES, THE GREEK MYTHS, VOLUME I

The Siren is the most ancient seductress of them all. Her prototype is the goddess Aphrodite—it is her nature to have a mythic quality about her—but do not imagine she is a thing of the past, or of legend and his-

tory: she represents a powerful male fantasy of a highly sexual, supremely

confident, alluring female offering endless pleasure and a bit of danger. In

today's world this fantasy can only appeal the more strongly to the male

psyche, for now more than ever he lives in a world that circumscribes his

aggressive instincts by making everything safe and secure, a world that offers

less chance for adventure and risk than ever before. In the past, a man had

some outlets for these drives—warfare, the high seas, political intrigue. In

the sexual realm, courtesans and mistresses were practically a social institu-

12 • The Art of Seduction

To whom aw I compare tion, and offered him the variety and the chase that he craved. Without any

the lovely girl, so blessed by outlets, his drives turn inward and gnaw at him, becoming all the more

fortune, if not to the volatile for being repressed. Sometimes a powerful man will do the most ir-

Sirens, who with their

lodestone draw the ships rational things, have an affair when it is least called for, just for a thrill, the

towards them? Thus, I danger of it all. The irrational can prove immensely seductive, even more

imagine, did Isolde attract so for men, who must always seem so reasonable. many thoughts and hearts

that deemed themselves If it is seductive power you are after, the Siren is the most potent of all.

safe from love's She operates on a man's most basic emotions, and if she plays her role prop-

disquietude. And indeed erly, she can transform a normally strong and responsible male into a child-

these two—anchorless

ships and stray thoughts— ish slave. The Siren operates well on the rigid masculine type—the soldier

provide a good comparison. or hero—just as Cleopatra overwhelmed Mark Antony and Marilyn Mon-

They are both so seldom roe Joe DiMaggio. But never imagine that these are the only types the

on a straight course, lie so

often in unsure havens, Siren can affect. Julius Caesar was a writer and thinker, who had transferred

pitching and tossing and his intellectual abilities onto the battlefield and into the political arena; the

heaving to and fro. Just so, playwright Arthur Miller fell as deeply under Monroe's spell as DiMaggio.

in the same way, do The intellectual is often the one most susceptible to the Siren call of pure

aimless desire and random

love-longing drift like an physical pleasure, because his life so lacks it. The Siren does not have to

anchorless ship. This worry about finding the right victim. Her magic works on one and all.

charming young princess, First and foremost, a Siren must distinguish herself from other women.

discreet and courteous

Isolde, drew thoughts from She is by nature a rare thing, mythic, only one to a group; she is also a valu-

the hearts that enshrined able prize to be wrested away from other men. Cleopatra made herself dif-

them as a lodestone draws ferent through her sense of high drama; the Empress Josephine Bonaparte's

in ships to the sound of the

Sirens' song. She sang device was her extreme languorousness; Marilyn Monroe's was her little-

openly and secretly, in girl quality. Physicality offers the best opportunities here, since a Siren is

through ears and eyes to preeminently a sight to behold. A highly feminine and sexual presence,

where many a heart was even to the point of caricature, will quickly differentiate you, since most

stirred. The song which she

sang openly in this and women lack the confidence to project such an image.

other places was her own Once the Siren has made herself stand out from others, she must have

sweet singing and soft two other critical qualities: the ability to get the male to pursue her so

sounding of strings that

echoed for all to hear feverishly that he loses control; and a touch of the dangerous. Danger is

through the kingdom of the surprisingly seductive. To get the male to pursue you is relatively simple: a

ears deep down into the highly sexual presence will do this quite well. But you must not resemble a

heart. But her secret song

was her wondrous beauty courtesan or whore, whom the male may pursue only to quickly lose inter-

that stole with its rapturous est in her. Instead, you are slightly elusive and distant, a fantasy come to life.

music hidden and unseen During the Renaissance, the great Sirens, such as Tullia d'Aragona, would

through the windows of the

eyes into many noble act and look like Grecian goddesses—the fantasy of the day. Today you

hearts and smoothed on the might model yourself on a film goddess—anything that seems larger than

magic which took thoughts life, even awe inspiring. These qualities will make a man chase you vehe-

prisoner suddenly, and, mently, and the more he chases, the more he will feel that he is acting on

taking them, fettered them

with desire! his own initiative. This is an excellent way of disguising how deeply you

—GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG, are manipulating him.

TRISTAN, TRANSLATED BY The notion of danger, challenge, sometimes death, might seem out-

A . T . HATTO dated, but danger is critical in seduction. It adds emotional spice and is

particularly appealing to men today, who are normally so rational and re-

pressed. Danger is present in the original myth of the Siren. In Homer's

Odyssey, the hero Odysseus must sail by the rocks where the Sirens, strange

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Índice

Front Cover

Contents

Preface

Part One: The Seductive Character

The Siren

The Rake

The Ideal Lover

The Dandy

The Natural

The Coquette

The Charmer

The Charismatic

The Star

The Anti-Seducer

The Seducer's Victims - The 18 Types

Part Two: The Seductive Process

Phase One: Separation - Stirring Interest and Desire

1 Choose the Right Victim

2 Create a False Sense of Security-Approach Indirectly

3 Send Mixed Signals

4 Appear to Be an Object of Desire - Create Triangles

5 Create a Need - Stir Anxiety and Discontent

6 Master the Art of Insinuation

7 Enter Their Spirit

8 Create Temptation

Phase Two: Lead Astray - Creating Pleasure and Confusion

9 Keep Them in Suspense - What Comes Next?

10 Use the Demonic Power of Words to Sow Confusion

11 Pay Attention to Details

12 Poeticize Your Presence

13 Disarm Through Strategic Weakness and Vulnerability

14 Confuse Desire and Reality - The Perfect Illusion

15 Isolate the Victim

Phase Three: The Precipice - Deepening the Effect Through Extreme Measures

16 Prove Yourself

17 Effect a Regression

18 Stir Up the Transgressive and Taboo

19 Use Spiritual Lures

20 Mix Pleasure with Pain

Phase Four: Moving In for the Kill

21 Give Them Space to Fall - The Pursuer Is Pursued

22 Use Physical Lures

23 Master the Art of the Bold Move

24 Beware the Aftereffects

Appendix A: Seductive Environment/Seductive Time

Appendix B: Soft Seduction: How to Sell Anything to the Masses

Selected Bibliography

Index

Back Cover