The Art of Seduction

Get what you want by manipulating every one’s greatest weakness: the desire for pleasure.

Seduction is the most subtle, elusive, and effective form of power. It's as evident in John F. Kennedy's hold over the masses as it is in Cleopatra's hold over Antony. Now, the author of the bestselling The 48 Laws of Power has written a handbook synthesizing the classic literature of seduction from Freud to Kierkegaard and Ovid to Casanova, with cunning strategies illustrated by the successes and failures of characters throughout history. Once again Robert Greene identifies the rules of a timeless, amoral game and explores how to cast a spell, break down resistance, and, ultimately, compel a target to surrender. The Art of Seduction takes us through the characters and qualities of the ten archetypal figures of seduction (including the Siren, the Ideal Lover, the Dandy, the Natural, the Charismatic, and the Star) and the twenty-four maneuvers by which anyone can overcome a victim's futile resistance to the practice of this devastating and timeless art form.

Every bit as essential as The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction is an indispensable primer of persuasion that reveals one of history's greatest weapons and the ultimate form of power.

• 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 Eighteen 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 Detail
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 Spirital 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