ROBERT GREENE : TYPES OF ANTI-SEDUCERS

Are you a Brute, a Suffocater, Moralizer, Tightwad, Bumbler, Windbag, Reactor, Vulgarian? (Of all of these it seems to me that the Vulgarian can most change their behavior!)

pages 134-135

"Vulgarians are inattentive to the details that are so important in seduction. You can see this in their personal appearance - their clothes are tasteless by any standard - and in their actions: they do not know what it is sometimes better to control oneself and refuse to give into one's impulses. Vulgarians will blab, saying anything in public. They have no sense of timing and are rarely in harmony with your tastes. Indiscretion, is a sure sign of the Vulgarian (talking to others of your affair, for example); it may seem impulsive, but it's real source is their radical selfishness, their inability to see themselves as others see them. More than just avoiding Vulgarians, you must make yourself their opposite - tact, style, and attention to detail area all basic requirements of a seducer..."

Penguin Books Publisher
C Robert Greene and Joost Elffers 2001

ROBERT GREENE : THE ART OF SEDUCTION : BOOK EXERPT

page 171 Excerpt

"Life is short, and should not be wasted pursuing and seducing the wrong people. The choice of target is critical; it is the set up of the seduction and it will determine everything else that follows. The perfect victim does not have certain facial features, or the same taste in music, or similar goals in life. That is how a banal seducer chooses his or her targets. The perfect victim is the person who stirs you in a way that cannot be explained in words, whose effect on you has nothing to do with superficialities. He or she often has a quality that you yourself lack, and may even secretly envy - The Presidente, for example, has an innocence that Valmont long ago lost or never had. There should be a little bit of tension - the victim may fear you a little, even slightly dislike you. Such tension is full of erotic potential and will make the seduction much livelier. Be more creative in choosing your prey, and you will be rewarded with a more exciting seduction. Of course, it means nothing if the potential victim is not open to your influence. Test the person first..."

Penguin Books C Robert Greene and Joost Elffers, 2001.

(The use of the term victim, is, I believe, if you read the book, almost charming, but maybe it's meant to be charmingly vampirish?)

ROBERT GREENE : THE ART OF SEDUCTION : ON CORA PEARL

BOOK EXERPT FROM "THE ART OF SEDUCTION" by ROBERT GREENE

pages 59-60-61

"Born Emma Crouch in 1842 in England, from a respectable middle class family but her father abandoned the family in 1849 for immigration to America. " One day in 1856, when Emma was walking home from church, a well dressed gentleman invited her home for some cakes. She followed him to his house, where he proceeded to take advantage of her. The next morning this man, a diamond merchant, promised to set her up in a house of her own, treat her well, and give her plenty of money. She took the money but left him, determined to do what she had always wanted: never see her family again, never depend on anyone, and lead the grand life that her father had promised her.

With the money the diamond merchant had given her, Emma bought nice clothes and rented a cheap flat. Adopting the flamboyant name of CORA PEARL, she began to frequent London's Argyll Rooms, a fancy place where harlots and gentlemen rubbed elbows. The proprietor, a Mr. Gignell, took note of this newcomer to his establishment - she was so brazen for a young girl. At forty-five he was much older than she was, bu he decided to be her lover and protector, lavishing her with money and attention...

"Frequenting all the right places, Cora soon ca me to the attention of wealthy French gentlemen. ...As money began to pour in from her various conquests (the Duc de Mornay, heir to the Dutch throne; Prince Napoleon, cousin to the Emperor), Cora spent it on the most outrageous things - a multicolored carriage pulled by a team of cream-colored horses, a rose marbled bath tub... But money could not buy Cora's loyalty; she would leave a man on the slightest whim...

Antics like this made Cora the toast of Paris, and she reigned as the city's supreme courtesan for over a decade, until the Franco-Prussian War of 1879 put an end to the Second Empire."

Penguin Books Publisher
C Robert Greene and Joost Elffers 2001