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The Art of
SEDUCTION

By Robert Greene

a book review by
Dr. Susan Block

Classical 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), and frequently titillating handbook on how to get what you want and whom you want. This time it's about how to do so aggressively and shamelessly, yet without physical force. The title is, appropriately, The Art of Seduction.

Greene's first book, The 48 Laws of Power, was a winner in every way, filled with fearless wisdom and fascinating tales of power and its hot and cold pursuit throughout Eastern and Western history. The Art of Seduction carries on the Greene tradition with panache, remarkable depth and utterly irreverent fun. Though I loved Greene's first book, I actually like the second better, perhaps because it deals so unflinchingly with my favorite subject.

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

Greene sets his stage with the promise of pleasure coupled with power. He then casts his how-to drama with some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Bill Clinton, as well as literature and mythology's consummate lovers--Don Juan, Bathsheba, Valmont and Aphrodite Herself.

He skillfully weaves the seduction of individual "victims" with the seduction of whole nations. Sometimes the two overlap. Napoleon seduced France into making him emperor, but Josephine seduced the Little Emperor into becoming her fawning slave.

I do 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. Greene's Art of Seduction is a masterpiece of the self-help genre, which I never thought could produce a masterpiece. It contains the wisdom of the ages sifted through a philosophy of romantic pragmatism. It is as if Machiavelli had written a Pillow Book.

Though I don't tend to call my lovers "victims," I found myself in agreement with most of Greene major points. For instance, his chapter "Pay Attention to Details" echoes 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.

Can it help you to be a better seducer? Without a doubt. Its wisdom is based on simple truths: Pay Attention to Detail. Keep Them in Suspense. Create Temptation. Send Mixed Signals. Create Triangles. Mix Pleasure with Pain. We all know these concepts, but few of us really understand them or are courageous enough to put them into action. Those who do become great seducers, adored and reviled for their talents and conquests.

Greene's underlying philosophy is that seduction is not a sin, or if it is, who cares! To seduce and to be seduced is the greatest, most exhilarating force in human life. It transforms your basic primal rutting into an art form. Seduction is about making love, really creating it, like a magician makes magic, like a chef makes a meal, from whatever ingredients are available. And being seduced isn't so bad either. Being seduced is falling in love. It is the orgasm of human existence.

And yet seduction is a game. An adventure. It is not about marriage and family. However, understanding the art of seduction can certainly help love to last throughout the monotony of monogamy. Greene's last chapter, "Beware the Aftereffects" is especially helpful to those of us who wish to make seduction an ongoing part of marriage.

The only sentimental touch is the dedication to the memory of the author's father, Peter Greene, whose delicious translations of Ovid and other classics spice up the margins. Speaking of those fabulous margins, the book's elegant design, by Joost Elffers who also made Greene's Power book a classic, makes Greene's prose a delight to behold.

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 understand the crafty ways of lust, love and power sifted through the fine, maligned art of seduction.

Yikes! I believe I've been seduced! And I'm loving it.