The Art of Seduction: An Indispensible Primer on the Ultimate Form of Power

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the US, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. The book emphasizes Kennedy’s strategies to seduce the American public, particularly during the 1960 presidential campaign against Richard Nixon. Kennedy exemplifies the Ideal Lover and seduced the American people using charm, chivalry, and idealism. His presidency focused on idealism and became associated with Camelot, King Arthur’s castle and court from medieval legend, idealized in a Broadway musical, which was one of Kennedy’s favorites.

He is also an example of a Dandy in blending masculine political moves and a feminine appearance, as well as an example of a Mythic Star who used his language, presence, and appearance to bring a Hollywood-character type to life. He used the seductive techniques of creating anxiety in the American people, exuding an air of weakness in his appearance to disarm them, and using insinuation and isolation during his campaign.

Cleopatra became queen of ancient Egypt after the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 BCE. After her death, she became known as Julius Caesar’s lover and Mark Antony’s wife more than for her own political achievements, and she was transformed into a seductive, exotic figure in plays and films.

Reflecting this reputation, the book focuses on Cleopatra’s seductive qualities rather than her politic contributions. It uses Cleopatra as an example of a Spectacular Siren who seduced Caesar and Antony, and her seductive power was thwarted by Octavius’s Anti-Seducer qualities. She used the techniques of creating anxiety and discontent, paying attention to detail in her clothing, associating herself with Aphrodite, and mixing pleasure and pain to seduce Antony.

Andy Warhol was an American artist and filmmaker who played a key role in the pop art movement of the 1960s. His famous paintings of soup cans and soap pad boxes and bright portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe reflect his impersonal and unemotional air. He was shot and almost killed by playwright and actress Valerie Solanas after he lost her script and did not produce her play. The Factory, his studio in New York City, was a trendy site for celebrities and artists from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The book suggests that Warhol is an example of a Dandy and a Cold Coquette, and he demonstrates the dangers of being too coquettish due to Solanas’s murder attempt. He used the seductive techniques of making himself seem desirable, maintaining suspense through a changing persona, and creating a seductive environment through the Factory.

Don Juan is a fictional literary character symbolizing a seducer. He first appeared in Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla (1630), then in many later plays, novels, poems, films, and other media. The story focuses on how he seduces a girl from a noble family, then kills her father when he attempts to get revenge.

Greene’s book draws on Jacinto Octavio Picón’s novel Dulce y Sabrosa (1891) and other sources to describe Don Juan as a Rake and detail his seductive techniques. Greene explains that Don Juan was first upheld as a masculine fantasy and adventurer who could seduce any woman, then became a woman’s fantasy in the 17th and 18th centuries because his life was focused on them. Don Juan used the techniques of creating anxiety and using language. Cristeta Moreruela uses temptation to seduce him in Picón’s novel.

Giacomo (or Jacques) Casanova was an 18th-century Italian adventurer, writer, soldier, diplomat, and spy who was known for seducing women throughout Europe. His life has been depicted in films, plays, musicals, operas, television, and other forms. He wrote an autobiography about his exploits, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova, which Greene draws on to describe how Casanova exemplifies the Ideal Lover and used the techniques of creating suspense, fantasy, and seductive environments. He also dealt with a countess who was an Anti-Seducer and was seduced by Marianne de Charpillon.

Napoleon Bonaparte, or Napoleon I, was a French general and emperor during the French Revolution in the early 19th century. Viewed as one of the best military generals in history, he was known for his reforms of the military, warfare, civil law, and education. When he was defeated by other European powers in the Battle of Leipzig during the War of the Sixth Coalition, he was exiled to the island of Elba but escaped and briefly retook control of France.

The book refers to Napoleon as the victim of a Siren and Coquette (by his later wife Josephine), and he played the Coquette to the French people, using the seductive techniques of insinuation and temptation. He was also the victim of an Ideal Lover by his cabinet minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand.

Josephine Bonaparte (Josephine de Beauharnais) was empress of France and married to Napoleon Bonaparte between 1796 and 1810. She met Napoleon when he was a young army officer and married him after he became commander of the Italian expedition during the French Revolutionary Wars. She was unable to have Napoleon’s children, and Napoleon wanted to marry Marie-Louise, the daughter of Emperor Francis I of Russia, to gain more political power, so he had his marriage to Josephine annulled, making Marie-Louise his new empress. The book describes how Josephine exemplifies a Siren and Coquette who used the techniques of showing strategic weakness and vulnerability, creating jealousy, and using a bold move to seduce Napoleon.

One of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sisters, Pauline Bonaparte was an imperial French princess and the princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano in Italy. She was married twice and became the Duchess of Guastalla, a town in northern Italy, but was removed from the court after her poor treatment of Napoleon’s new empress, Marie-Louise.

She had an affair with Jules de Canouville in 1810, when she was married, and the book describes how de Canouville used the strategy of proving himself through actions to seduce her. She illustrates the qualities of a Siren, created a sense of desirability to seduce others, and played the role of a mythical seducer as a part of illusion.

Errol Flynn was an Australian-American actor who starred in swashbuckler, adventure, and Western films from the 1930s through 1950s. He was known as a womanizer and heavy drinker. Accused of statutory rape of two adolescent girls in 1942, he was acquitted after his lawyers used character assassination to counter the accusations. Many of Flynn’s fans protested the rape charges—charges that harmed his image—but he continued his film career. The book describes Flynn as a Rake who used the techniques of creating desirability, having a feminine side, using physical lures, sending mixed signals, being transgressive, and making a bold move to seduce many women.

Rudolph Valentino (Rodolpho Guglielmi) was a dancer and actor who emigrated from Italy to the US in 1913. He starred in silent films of the 1920s and was known for his exotic and androgynous appearance, causing the press to question his masculinity and sexuality. However, he was known as a sex symbol and was called the “Latin Lover” and “Great Lover.”

The book labels him as an Ideal Lover and Dandy who blended feminine and masculine traits, paid attention to detail, and was transgressive, which allowed him to seduce women. Greene also describes how he was abusive toward his wife, which his movie studio used to capitalize on his “double image” as both dangerous and caring.

Gabriele D’Annunzio was a novelist, playwright, journalist, military hero, and political leader in Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He fought in World War I, became a pilot, and led a march advocating for the annexation of the city of Fiume in Yugoslavia to Italy in 1919. He used his status as a war hero to seduce those who opposed him and became the leader of the Free State of Fiume until 1920.

Greene characterizes D’Annunzio as a Demonic Rake who used his voice and language to seduce women. He also used the techniques of paying attention to detail, showing a feminine side, proving himself through his wartime heroics, showing vulnerability, and using language to flatter women. He is also an example of a political seducer because he used language to seduce the public.

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer known as a sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s, and she remains a sex symbol today. She was married to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and Greene interprets Miller as an intellectual who desires the Siren because of the physical pleasure she can provide.

He describes Monroe as a Sex Siren who used her innocence and sex appeal, sent mixed signals, and paid attention to detail by using clothing to seduce men and audiences. She also showed vulnerability by acting as if she needed men to protect her. She illustrates Reverse Parental Regression in her use of innocence to project a girlish image.

Juliette Récamier (Madame Récamier or Madame de Récamier) was a French socialite in the early 19th century who held famous salons that attracted well-known literary, intellectual, artistic, and political leaders in Paris. She was known for her beauty and demeanor.

Although she was married, she seduced men by sending mixed signals, using facial expression for insinuation, and using her body to create temptation to seduce men like Prince Metternich, the Duke of Wellington, and Benjamin Constant. She also used Ego Ideal Regression to seduce François René de Chateaubriand.

One of the first female psychoanalysts, Lou Andreas-Salomé (Lou von Salomé) was also a Russian-German essayist and author during the early 20th century. She wrote about female sexuality and published novels and books, including a book, Friedrich Nietzsche in his Works, about Nietzsche’s personality and philosophy.

Greene describes Salomé as a Masculine Dandy who blended masculine and feminine traits to seduce men and used the techniques of creating love triangles and being distant through physical absence. Although married, she seduced Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Paul Rée, Victor Tausk, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Josephine Baker was a dancer, singer, and actress who became a French citizen. She went to Paris in the 1920s as part of La Revue Nègre during a period of high French interest in Black culture, toured Europe, and returned to Paris to star in the Folies Bergère. She was famous for her erotic dancing style and her semi-nude act dancing in a G-string decorated with bananas.

Greene describes her as a Masculine Dandy and Natural who used her body to seduce the French people. She also kept them in suspense by changing her dancing. Greene claims that by becoming a fashionable French woman, she offered France a “caricature” of whiteness after they had become attached to her caricature of Black culture in her dancing.

Lord Byron was a British poet during the Romantic Movement in early-19th-century England. He was also known for his sexual exploits and love affairs and had an intimate relationship with his half sister Augusta. He wrote an epic poem, “Don Juan,” that portrayed Don Juan as a victim of women who seduced him, rather than the other way around. Greene characterizes Byron as an example of a Rake and describes how he used facial expressions for insinuation, showed his vulnerability, and transgressed taboos like incest and adultery to seduce women.

Marlene Dietrich was a German American actress and singer who starred in German and American films during the 1930s and 1940s. She was famous for her femme-fatale roles and her sex appeal, often wearing pants and masculine attire.

The book uses this as evidence for her type as a Masculine Dandy and also labels her a Fetishistic Star who became an object to those who desired her. She used the seductive techniques of sending mixed signals by combining her beauty with an air of coldness and also used theatrical effects to create a seductive environment.