Almost all of us yearn to be seduced. The reason is simple: life is often difficult and harsh. As adults, we are burdened with endless responsibilities; we work longer and longer hours, feel constantly preoccupied and harried. What we lack most is pleasure, adventure, romantic entanglements, the kinds of things we dreamed about when we were young. And so we secretly desire to be lead away from our routines, to explore the kinds of things that society normally forbids us, if only for a day or an hour. We are waiting to be seduced-by a man or a woman, an idea, a cause.
A seducer is a person who knows how to play upon this weakness of ours. Seducers win our attention by seeming mysterious and alluring; slowly they transform that attention into fascination and the desire to possess them. They lure us with the promise of pleasure or adventure, make us emotional and weak, slowly break down our normal resistances. The seducer has tremendous power, because so many people in our society want to be seduced. And this power of theirs is something we secretly envy and wish we could somehow possess for ourselves-the inability to influence people is the greatest source of frustration in our lives. We have the mistaken impression, though, that seduction is a talent you are born with, when in fact it is an art that anyone can master once you understand the psychology involved.
The Art of Seduction is the ultimate handbook on how to have and wield this power. The Art of Seduction will teach you how to play up certain elements in your personality that will fascinate those around you, get and hold their attention, make them talk about you, think about you, and fight over you. The Art of Seduction will teach you the twenty-four tactics that are certain to have a devastatingly seductive effect on your targets' psyches. For instance, how to use the language of insinuation; how to create the proper temptation; how to pleasantly surprise your targets and confuse them with moments of doubt; how to play on their most uncontrollable emotions, appeal to the dark and repressed sides of their character; and ultimately how to finish off the seduction in the most powerful manner possible. These tactics can be applied to almost any kind of encounter in daily life, for seduction is nothing more than a sophisticated form of persuasion.
Each chapter in the book is illustrated with an historical example that will spark your imagination and help you absorb the ideas in a practical way. These examples have been culled from the biographies and memoirs of the world's most brilliant seducers and seductresses-Cleopatra, Casanova, Josephine Bonaparte, John F. Kennedy, Empress Catherine the Great, Errol Flynn, Eva Peron, Duke Ellington, Marilyn Monroe, among many others. In essence, by putting into practice the ideas in this book you will be following in the footsteps of the greatest masters of the art.
The Art of Seduction is a companion work to my first book, The 48 Laws of Power (Viking/Penguin, 1998), a national and international bestseller. The 48 Laws is a handbook that teaches you how to play the game of power to the greatest effect-how to manipulate when necessary, keep people off balance, protect yourself from predators, and charm those around you, neutralizing people's hostility towards your successes. Implied in the first book is the idea that seduction is the most effective kind of power-people happily give in to the seducer, without feeling resentful or manipulated. The Art of Seduction takes this idea much further, uncovering the psychological principles that underlie every kind of seduction. Whether you are seeking sexual conquest, social influence, people's votes, or something more elusive, you will find The Art of Seduction an indispensable guide on how to master this irresistible form of power.
