The Art of Seduction

Welcome to my The Art of Seduction book summary!

One-Sentence-Summary: Historical, whimsically written, baroque in detail, and sometimes fictional accounts of famous and/or powerful male and female seducers, applied to the author’s 9 types of seducionists – Siren, Rake, Ideal Lover, Dandy, Natural, Coquette, Charmer, Charismatic, and Star.

“Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty.” (p. xxi)

I’ve finished reading The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene.

booboo real-time book rating: ★★☆☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 14%)

“Targets with active minds are dangerous.” (p. 393) Neil Strauss disagrees. Thinking women are easier to seduce because they are curious, and the pickup artist can keep their attention longer, and to persuade you need someone’s attention.

The Art of Seduction Review

No wonder I wasn’t interested in reading this book for over five years since I purchased it. Amazing reviews, but the book did not connect with me. Even the author admits, “the character was most likely based on a real-life man.” (p. 64) I don’t think many of the accounts of historical seducers are relevant because they’re dated, based on fictional or famous characters, based on historical accounts sometimes from 2000 years ago, unrealistic, or generalized.

The author depicts Odysseus from The Odyssey in one of his chapters. Odysseus is fictional!

When the author depicts Charlie Chaplin as a seducer in “The Natural” chapter, he could just as easily have put him in any other chapter. I would suspect that many of Mr. Chaplin’s seductive abilities stemmed directly from his fame and fortune, rather than any particular specialized seductive abilities.

I find it interesting, and did not know, that three of his four wives were teenagers, two being 16 when he married them, and his last wife was 18 when Charly was 54. They stayed married until his death.

Other characters he depicts as seducers have such fanciful stories that they’re unrealistic in their own time (if real) and even more unrealistic today. For example, one woman wrapped herself in a carpet to be brought into some city to sneak in to see royalty. Another dug a tunnel into a castle. Likely fiction and, definitely, unrealistic.

This blog will contain both my summary and review of the book The Art of Seduction.

The Anti-Seducer

Claudius, the first profiled anti-seducing character from 2,000 years ago Roman empire, is a seducer by Greene’s own words. Valeria Messalina, Claudius’s wife, was one of the most beautiful women in Rome, yet he “paid her no attention” (p. 136) so she started having affairs, ever more obvious to get his attention because “nothing is more infuriating than being paid no attention.” (p. 137)

Besides this critique, there are some important lessons in this chapter:

• “In the process of seduction, you may have to pull back at times, subjecting your target to moments of doubt. But prolonged inattention will not only break the seductive spell, it can create hatred.” (p. 137)
• The pleasure of seduction “is its duration – the time it takes, the waiting that increases anticipation.” (p. 133) Those who have no patience for such things “are concerned only with their own pleasure, never with yours.” (p. 137)
• “Suffocators fall in love with you before you are even half-aware of their existence.” (p. 137) Men are guilty of this. Have some standards besides beauty and make her prove herself over time, just like she’ll make you do.

“The main obstacle to becoming a seducer is this foolish prejudice we have to seeing love and romance as some kind of sacred, magical realm where things just fall into place, if they are meant to. This might seem romantic and quaint, but it is really just a core for our laziness.” (p. xxii)

As I read the book, you will find my in-progress The Art of Seduction review and book summary notes below.

Josephine Baker

Profiled as a natural seducer, Josephine Baker was an American-French entertainer of the early 1900s. Having nothing to do with seduction, what I am most surprised about is a black person rising to fame and fortune in a time period where I have been conditioned to think that racism was so prevalent.

Paris was excited for “anything that came from black America.” (p. 61) “Within a year, her face was on posters everywhere; there were Josephine Baker perfumes, dolls, clothes; fashionable Frenchwomen were slicking their hair back a la Baker, using product called Bakerfix. They were even trying to darken their skin.” (p. 62)

I never learned about this in history class. Is that because it wasn’t all that rare?

“Leaving things to chance is a recipe for disaster, and reveals that we do not take love and romance very seriously.” (p. xxii)

You are reading my book review and summary by Robert Greene. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

The Seducer’s Victims

The Disappointed Dreamer – An only child who spent a lot of time alone living in a fantasy world making them disappointed with reality and relationships. They want adventure and romanticism.

The Pampered Royal – Spoiled children, looking to be spoiled as an adult, hopping from relationship to relationship, job to job, traveling a lot. Seduce them by being the parent who spoils them with distraction, it becomes easier once they are hooked.

The New Prude – Someone who is very correct to avoid being judged harshly by society. They are secretly oppressed, and you seduce them simply with contact. In private, you can make them adventurous.

Again, it’s too abstract. There’s no real actionable advice. You have to read between the lines and make your own assumptions about real world relationships to apply a category to one person, who often would have many. I couldn’t really relate to any of them. For example, I fit in well to The Pampered Royalty, but was not spoiled as the youngest of four brothers.

There are eighteen seducer victims. Talk about making a basic concept overly complex.

“When [seducers] meet someone their first move is to get inside that person’s skin, to see the world through their eyes.” (p. xxii)

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

The Seductive Process

“Mystery is the lifeblood of seduction.” (p. 163)

Again, here, Greene overcomplicated the intertwined process of seduction.

This section is broken down into four phases:

• Separation – stirring interest and desire
• Creating pleasure and confusion
• Deepening the effect through extreme measures
• Moving in for the kill

Here are some useful things to keep in mind, mostly chapter titles:

Approach indirectly to create a false sense of security

Send mixed signals to confuse and mask your intentions

Appear to be the object of desire with high-status behaviors

Stir anxiety and discontent with their own lives

Master the art of insinuation.

Create temptation in the future with you (most easily accomplished nowadays with social media)

Keep them in suspense – avoid the boring, the routine.

Isolate your victim.

Mix pleasure and pain (today we would suggest breaking rapport)

“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.” (p. 2)

New Words

Libertine (n) – normally man without morals in terms of sexual matters (Be careful, he is a libertine)

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Robert Greene for writing The Art of Seduction!

“When caught red-handed in rakishness, fall back on your weakness-your desire to change, and your inability to do so. With so many women at your feet, what can you do? You are the one who is the victim. You need help. Women will jump at this opportunity.” (p. 26)

Date Started: Sunday, November 17, 2019

Date Finished: Wednesday, April 23, 2025