By Robert Greene

Preface

• To have such power does not require a total transformation in your character our any kind of physical improvement in your looks. Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the world differently, through the eyes of a seducer.
• 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 defense. Once seducers have penetrated the mind, making the target fantasize about them, it is easy to lower resistance and create physical surrender. Seducers do not improvise; they do not leave this process to chance. Like any good general, they plan and strategize, aiming at the target’s particular weaknesses.
• Seducers are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed outward, not inward. When they meet someone their first move is to get inside that person’s skin, to see the world through their eyes.
• Seduction is a kind of theater in real life, the meeting of illusion and reality.
• The Art of Seduction is designed to arm you with weapons of persuasion and charm, so that those around you will slowly lose their ability to resist without knowing how or why it has happened. It is an art for delicate times.

Part One: the Seductive Character

• 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 notice your subsequent manipulations. It will then be child’s play to mislead and seduce them.
• Nine seducer types in the world
  • 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 creatures.
  • Charismatics have an unusual confidence in themselves.
  • Stars are ethereal and envelop themselves in mystery.

The Siren

The Spectacular Siren

• Cleopatra’s seductive power did not lie in her looks - indeed many among the women of Alexandria were considered more beautiful than she. What she did have above all other women was the ability to distract a man. In reality, Cleopatra was physically unexceptional and had no political power, yet both Caesar and Antony, brave and clever men, saw none of this. What they saw was a woman who constantly transformed herself before their eyes, a one-women spectacle.
• From Cleopatra we learn that it is not beauty that makes a Siren but rather a theatrical streak that allows a woman to embody a man’s fantasies. A man grows bored with a woman, no matter how beautiful; he yearns for different pleasures, and for adventure. All a woman needs to turn this around is to create the illusion that she offers such variety and adventure.

The Sex Siren

• Before appearing on set, or even at a party, Marilyn would spend hours before the mirror. Most people assumed this was vanity - she was in love with her image. The truth was that image took hours to create. Marilyn spent years studying and practicing the art of makeup. The voice, the walk, the face and look were all constructions, an act. At the height of her fame, she would get a thrill by going into bars in New York City without her makeup or glamorous clothes and passing unnoticed.
• Other women know just as many tricks for heightening their sexual appeal, but what separated Marilyn from them was an unconscious element. Her background had deprived her of something critical: affection. Her deepest need was to feel loved and desired, which made her seem constantly vulnerable, like a little girl craving protection. She emanated this need for love before the camera; it was effortless, coming from somewhere real and deep inside. A look or gesture that she did not intend to arouse desire would do so doubly powerfully just because it was unintended - its innocence was precisely what excited a man.
• What separates the Sex Siren from the courtesan or whore is her touch of innocence and vulnerability. The mix is perversely satisfying: it gives the male the critical illusion that he is a protector, the father figure, although it is actually the Sex Siren who controls the dynamic.

Keys to the Character

• Once the Siren has made herself stand out from others, she must have two other critical qualities: the ability to get the male to pursue her so feverishly that he loses control; and a touch of the dangerous.